20 November 2019
7
www.thevillagenews.co.za
A clown of many talents New provincial number plates ‘Mr Clown’ (real name: Sean Justin Kvalsvig) was among one of the first people to get his hands on a copy of The Village NEWS on delivery day last Wednesday.
“I read the newspaper every week,” chuckled the ‘living statue’, who can be found in front of the Hermanus Pharmacy in Main Road on weekday mornings, and at the Village Square on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from about 13:30 – 20:00. Sean, who is also a fire performer, balloon sculptor and tarot card reader, says he “ran away from home and joined a circus” when he was 17. The circus in question was the Back Door Initiative (BDI) – no animals involved – and it’s where Sean learnt all manner of skills, from clowning to fire eating. He’s been performing at arts festivals throughout the country for many years but is now happily based in Hermanus. Being a living statue means that you have to be able to remain ‘frozen’ for up to 40 minutes, but Sean says modelling for an art school in Johannesburg provided good training for the job. As Mr Clown his only wish is to amuse people – “Laughter is the best medicine” – and during season he will also be entertaining people with his fire show at the Hermanus Country Market on Wednesday evenings. PHOTO: Hedda Mittner
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esidents of the Western Cape will soon see the introduction of new number plates for the province next year. In the Provincial Gazette published on Friday, the department said in a notice that the new number plates will be an alphanumeric combination. “The introduction of new number plates is a pre-emptive one, driven by the rate at which the current ‘CAA’ and ‘CAW’ licence numbers are being used up,” the notice said. It further describes the number plate as follows: two letters, two figures and two letters in any sequence; a ‘WC’ licence mark which follows this alphanumeric combination. A government spokesperson said this new format would give authorities room to produce a possible further 16 million number plates and is similar to the current plate formats used in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. The notice stated that more than one municipality shares the same number plate, such as the municipalities of Theewaterskloof and Overstrand share CAM plates. “The
current municipal areas do not in all respects align with the areas of the then Department of Inland Revenue through which number plates were originally established and allocated. This situation leads to a vehicle being allocated with a number plate that contains a licence mark (as programmed on NaTIS) at a registering authority that is not part of the local municipality of the vehicle owner – a situation where revenue (through vehicle licence fees) is then not paid to the correct municipality leading to a loss of revenue.” “Other practical reasons for considering provincial number plates as opposed to adding more local marks to the existing ones, including the manipulation of address information by vehicle owners favouring one number plate over another, such as within the City of Cape Town which uses the CA, CAA, CEY, CF, CFM, CFR and CY number plates,” the government noted. Since its introduction on 13 April 2019, close on 82 000 CAA numbers for the City of Cape Town have been allocated.
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