{"id":868983,"date":"2026-08-07T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=868983"},"modified":"2026-08-07T12:22:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:22:34","slug":"new-driving-licence-cards-for-south-africa-hit-a-roadblock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/868983\/new-driving-licence-cards-for-south-africa-hit-a-roadblock\/","title":{"rendered":"Trouble for new driving licence cards in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Plans for a new driving licence card in South Africa might have hit a snag, with Outa raising concerns that the tender process is facing fresh delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest tender process for the new driving licences started in February 2026, with applications ending in March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the interim, the Department of Home Affairs has been aiding the Transportation Department in producing licence cards to address the renewal backlog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, since the tender application process ended, the department has not announced its preferred bidders or provided any further updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) CEO Wayne Duvenage expressed concern about the process and said the tender applications seem to have “hit a snag.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We believe the current tender of this process being handled by the DLCA and the Department of Transport has been pushed out, due to their inability to award the tender by 31 July to a successful tenderer,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This means they will have to get permission from the qualifying tenderers to hold their prices for a few more months.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This suggests there is some inefficiency unfolding with the new card machine tender, which is a serious concern.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the procurement process has run into trouble, it might mean that new licence cards could be further delayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duvenage said the current tender application process looked similar to previous processes, in which the winning tender offer was ultimately cancelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that OUTA had contacted the CEO of the DLCA to seek clarity on the tender process and the causes of delays in finalising the procurement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delays in implementing new licence card production could also affect the validity extension recently approved by the Cabinet, Duvenage warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Outa CEO is hopeful that the licence validity extension will be fast-tracked, he noted that it might be attached to the new licence card rollout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BusinessTech has asked the department for updates on the driving licence card tender and the extension of the validity period, but did not receive a response by the time of publication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The response will be added if received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long road to new driving licence cards<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The country’s current driving licence cards have been in use since 1998, with Provida, a joint venture, as the original printer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement for Provida to print these cards was initially meant to last five years, but the deal was illegally extended for many years beyond that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, the driving licence card printer was handed over to a new group, the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DLCA has remained in charge of producing South Africa’s licences, and has continued to use the same printing machine that it inherited in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, due to the machine’s age, it has experienced several breakdowns over the years, causing backlogs in licence renewals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, former Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula announced plans to issue a new driving licence card in South Africa, along with new machinery to produce it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new card would feature more advanced safety measures, similar to the country’s current smart ID, to align it with global licence standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Mbalula said the new licence card would make it easier for South Africans to travel abroad and drive on foreign roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prototype design for the licence was quickly approved by the cabinet in 2022, and the Transport Department began the procurement process for a supplier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This procurement process has had several major issues over the years, which started when the French group Idemia won the tender for the cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outa noticed several irregularities with the tender awarded in 2024, which it brought to the attention of Transport Minister Barbara Creecy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These irregularities included inflated costs from the firm, leading to the tender being cancelled and republished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa wants to introduce new driver’s licence cards, but the process has not been smooth sailing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":866086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2085667508959256826","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2169301217223611","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[8452,19107,10409,1988,24925,1989],"class_list":["post-868983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-barbara-creecy","tag-dlca","tag-fikile-mbalula","tag-outa","tag-transport-department","tag-wayne-duvenage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868983"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869460,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868983\/revisions\/869460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}