Major blow for new driving licence cards in South Africa

Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has initiated legal action to block the awarding of a contract for new printing driving licence printing machines following an investigation into the tendering process.

This puts plans for a new driving licence card on ice indefinitely.

The department announced the measure on Wednesday (5 March), reporting on the outcomes of an Auditor General (AGSA) review of the process.

The AGSA found that the tender was irregularly handled, including instances of non-compliance with required processes.

The process was non-compliant with supply chain management prescripts, the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), Treasury Regulations and Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) policies, it said.

According to civil action group Outa, the bid would have cost South African taxpayers just under R900 million, which the AGSA was not in line with DLCA budgets, which were R490 million.

The DLCA submitted outdated pricing and budget to the Cabinet for approval, the AGSA said.

“The budget they submitted to Cabinet for approval did not include all the costs of the contract, leading to Cabinet approving a memo that was not a true reflection of the cost of the contract,” the AGSA said.

There were also inconsistencies with the application and scoring process and the evaluation process, it said.

The Auditor General flagged a host of inconsistencies related to the technical evaluation, site visits, capacity and capability tests, and deviations from the bid specifications.

The department said that in light of these findings, it could not turn a blind eye to the points raised and irregularities flagged.

Consequently, Creecy has instructed the department to lodge a High Court application for a declaratory order on how to proceed.

The original plan was to decommission the old printer and license cards by 31 March 2024. However, it now looks like this will be delayed indefinitely.

In the interim, the department will look at “various solutions” to keep the current printing machine going, which is a problem, given its age.

South Africa has depended on a single printer for decades to produce its driver’s licence cards. With the machine, one card takes an average of 14 working days to complete.

This inefficient process and the printer’s advanced age have led to frequent malfunctions and breakdowns—159 to be exact—resulting in a significant backlog of licence renewal applications.

The backlog of licence renewal applications in South Africa reached a peak of 1.3 million between 2022 and 2023.