Bad news for driving licences in South Africa

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) warned that South Africa’s dysfunctional driver’s licence card issuing system is a mess.

Over the last few years, problems with getting a new driver’s licence card have regularly made headlines due to broken machines and long delays.

South Africa’s only driving licence card printer has broken down 159 times in its 26 years of operation.

These breakdowns caused significant disruptions to people applying for a new driving licence card in South Africa.

Former Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga said the current driver’s licence card printer was “obsolete and prone to constant breakdown”.

Her predecessor, Fikile Mbalula, said in 2022 that revamping and modernising the printing machine system was the solution to the debacle.

South Africa designed a new driving licence card as part of the revamp. The cabinet approved the plan in August 2022, and a tender was issued.

The new card has enhanced security features, including watermarks and biometrics to store data, to reduce the risk of fraud and counterfeiting.

A new printer was set to be acquired for these new driving licence cards with a three-year phased rollout from 2023 to 2026.

However, these deadlines came and went without any sight of the new printer or driving licence cards. South Africans still suffer from printing machine breakdowns and long delays.

It later emerged that problems surrounding the tender were to blame. The tender had been withdrawn, and a new one had been issued in 2023.

Chikunga initially said the tender for procuring a new machine was almost concluded in April 2024 and that it would start printing at the end of the month.

However, it was revealed in June that the Department of Transport had only then shortlisted five bidders and had yet to adjudicate the tender.

In September, the department announced that it had appointed Idemia Identity and Security South Africa to produce new driving licence cards.

However, the company was mired in controversy, including indications of malfeasance surrounding a previous biometric and digital identity technology project.

Transport Minister Barbara Creecy requested the Auditor General (AG) to widen the scope of its audit of the process already being conducted.

She requested that the AG prioritise the audit process given the current backlog for driving license card applications and the parlous state of the current printing machine.

Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage takes action

Outa chief executive Wayne Duvenage welcomed Creecy’s announcement that the driving licence card machine tender award and contract will be investigated.

He raised concerns about the Driving Licence Card Account’s (DLCA) decision to appoint Idemia Identity and Security SA to provide the new smart driving licence card machine.

Duvenage said they received evidence indicating that the amount ballooned from the DLCA’s budgeted R468 million to R899 million.

Their concerns went beyond the budget, including the multiple tenders related to this contract and tampering with the pricing envelopes in the bids.

“We received information that at least one bidder was wrongly marked down on aspects for which it should have received additional points,” Duvenage said.

The DLCA also made last-minute changes to the tender requirements, including a supplier-specific technical specification favouring Idemia.

Duvenage told Biznews that there was a lack of transparency related to the tender process and why so many tenders were issued.

He said they are now looking forward to the results of the Auditor General investigation to see what was really happening.

“This will inform the minister’s decision whether to allow the tender to be awarded or for a new tender to be issued,” he said.

Should the tender process be started again, Duvenage said it is important to know who will be held accountable for the irregularities.

He said that if the minister decides to award the tender to Idemia and not halt the process, it will likely lead to litigation.

“We will have to wait for the minister’s decision. We will have to contemplate our next steps if she does not do what we believe is right. It will most likely be litigious,” he said.

Either way, it means more delays for South Africa in getting a new driver’s licence card printing machine.

In turn, it will likely result in further delays for people applying for new driver’s licence cards.

This article was first published by Daily Investor. Read the original here.