SPECIAL REPORT "Patriot", "Perfect", "NAAM"... these are some of the vanity plates in circulation today for which the Road Transport Department (RTD) has received criticism.

This is because the rights to sell these plates were traded away by the department, through direct-negotiations, without the customary open tender process.

Following the outcry of the "Patriot" car registration numbers last year, the controversy of RTD's outsourcing of vanity plates has come up again.