Driving licence card printing problems

The rollout of South Africa’s driving licence cards is more than a year behind schedule and could cost taxpayers well over double the transport department’s initial budgeted amount for the upgrade.

They could also take much longer to finally roll out if an investigation by the Auditor-General finds that the company which was eventually chosen to provide the new card and its printers was improperly appointed.

The procurement process for the new card has been plagued by delays, a lack of transparency, and seemingly controversial tender processes.

The current driving licence card and machine are outdated, and the need for their replacement is evident.

The document itself has become susceptible to fraud, and the 26-year-old machine has become prone to breakdowns.

Among the worst breakdowns was a more than two-month outage between November 2021 and January 2022, resulting from an electrical short due to a flood.

Repairing the machine required that a part be shipped to the original equipment manufacturer in Germany.

However, it was just one of 159 breakdowns since the printer started making cards. The nature and severity of most other breakdowns were not shared with the public.

Over the past five financial years, the breakdowns have cost R21 million to repair and have added to South Africa’s severe administrative driving licence card delays.

The wait for the new card and printer has been a long one.

Former transport minister Fikile Mbalula was the first to confirm the country was getting a new driving licence in early 2022, shortly after the printer’s extended breakdown.

Cabinet approved the plan in August 2022, and Mbalula announced that the pilot of the new card would begin in November 2023, a year ago.

He later also said the new driving licence card would be valid for eight years instead of five.

This was supported by the findings of a report commissioned by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).

The report also found that the printer should have been replaced 15 years ago.

No pilot and a backtrack on validity extension

Sindisiwe Chikunga replaced Mbalula after he was elected ANC secretary-general in December 2022.

Under Chikunga, the department suddenly went quiet about the new driving licence card pilot until early 2024, when she finally acknowledged that the printer had yet to be procured.

A few months later, the minister said that the department was at the tail-end of the procurement, with a team in France to see the machine for themselves.

In May 2024, Chikunga and the RTMC also walked back Mbalula’s statement that the validity period would be extended to eight years.

Confusingly, Chikunga’s reason for not extending the driving licence card validity period was to ensure motorists get regular eye tests and because many accidents are caused by “communicable and other diseases”.

Despite requests for an explanation, these reasons were never clarified.

In early June 2024, the department announced its five preferred bidders for the new driving licence card and its printer.

That came after it had published and withdrawn the tender for the contract three times.

A few weeks later, Chikunga was replaced by Barbara Creecy in the government of national unity, assuming her new role in July 2024.

Tender under investigation

In the latest development, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) made serious allegations of impropriety around the eventual awarding of the contract to French firm Idemia in August 2024 and its high costs.

“Outa is concerned that the tender for the card machine has been deliberately manipulated to ensure that a specific bidder was awarded the contract,” the organisation said.

“This included repeatedly issuing, withdrawing and reissuing the tender, along with three extensions of the price validity period, which is highly irregular and discouraged by Treasury’s procurement guidelines.” 

“Outa has for years repeatedly tried to get information from the Driving Licence Card Account and the department about the new driving licence card machine procurement process but this has been refused,” Outa said.

“The department has also refused to make public details of the various tenders and related bidders, including the awarded contract value.”

Creecy asked the Auditor-General to launch an urgent probe into the contract after meeting with Outa, including auditing the procurement process and investigating:

• Whether supply chain management prescripts were followed to the letter
• Whether the chosen bidder was the most affordable option
• Whether the specs for the project included adequate measures to protect the safety of personal data given the sensitivity of information and security features involved in this project
• The implications for this procurement process of the recent cancellation by Acasa of a contract that was awarded to Idemia due to a contractual dispute between Idemia and its BBBEE partner InfoVerge
• Whether Idemia’s technical capacity and timeous delivery were adequately considered in the tender process following allegations of challenges at three Airports where Idemia’s biometrics system was contracted by the Border Management Authority
• Whether other South African service providers tendered, including service providers contracted by the Government Printing Works, and if so, why they were not selected

Should the investigation confirm that there was nothing untoward about the contract, South Africa will be spending over R1 billion on the three new printers, compared with the R468 million it had budgeted.

If the investigation finds impropriety, as alleged by Outa, the tendering process is likely to be restarted, which will extend the time for a new card rollout by months, if not years.