About 600 000 licences were waiting to be printed, with many applicants having to wait months for their cards.
As the country battles with only one driver’s licence card machine, a seven-person transport department delegation enjoyed a trip to France to examine an expensive smart-card machine owned by a company bidding for a tender, although the device was not present during the visit.
This comes as almost 600 000 South Africans wait for their new driving-licence cards produced by a machine plagued by constant breakdowns.
Licence delegation
The delegation, comprising five bid-evaluation committee (BEC) members and two technical advisers, could not explain why they had chosen to visit France instead of either the Czech Republic or Greece.
There are only two sites where the machine, which prints blank polycarbonate cards, could be viewed, according to The Sunday Times. Instead, they looked at an “unrelated” machine owned by the company.
Runaround
According to the paper, after two days in France, the delegation moved on to Amsterdam for a site visit to inspect a second machine that would personalise the cards in a process whereby security features and the card owner’s personal details and biometrics are embedded in them.
However, the company had claimed in its bid document that its machine could be viewed only in Morocco or Burkina Faso.
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While it is unclear if transport department officials examined the correct printer, an investigation by the auditor-general (AG) found that two members of the delegation did not even view the machine.
Response
Transport Department spokesperson Collen Msibi told The Citizen on Monday that procuring a new driving-licence card machine was now on hold owing to the declaratory order application and could not comment on the trip to France and the Netherlands, as the matter was before the courts.
“I can confirm that it is indeed the department that approached the court for a declaratory order. We can not comment any further since the matter is already in court. We shall await the outcomes of court proceedings.”
According to the publication, the transport department’s acting director-general, Mathabatha Mokonyama, said in his founding affidavit that the delegation had been unable to explain why they went to France rather than the Czech Republic. Efforts to buy a new printer have been underway since 2021, but have been fraught with missteps.
Licence machine
South Africa’s only driver’s licence card printer has been plagued by breakdowns.
The machine has been out of order since January, resulting in a significant backlog in issuing driver’s licences. Few to no cards have been issued since the start of the year.
In July, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said her department struck an agreement with the Government Printing Works to provide a backup if the existing fault-prone machine is out of service.
Irregularities
Creecy said the AG found irregularities in the procurement process of the new driver’s licence card machine.
“It is a matter of public record that the department has taken a self-review application on this matter to the courts. The old card machine is currently fixed, and we are hard at work to clear out the printing backlog of licence cards.”
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Legal battle
In March, Creecy instructed her department to file a high court application for a declaratory order regarding the R400 million tender for a driving licence card machine.
This was after the AG identified irregularities over the preferred bidder Idemia’s South Africa contract.
In September last year, the transport department appointed French multinational identity technology company Idemia as the preferred bidder for the multimillion-rand tender to procure a new driver’s licence printing machine.
Idemia blow
However, a week before Idemia was selected, it was dealt a blow, with Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) cancelling a deal that would have seen the French company provide technology like self-boarding gates at nine South African airports.
Audit
In September 2024, Creecy instructed the AG to expedite and widen the audit scope for the new driving licence card procurement process after new evidence emerged of alleged serious irregularities in the decision to make Idemia the preferred bidder.
According to the report, the AG identified instances of non-compliance with the required procurement processes.
The AG also found that the identified instances of non-compliance were due to the DLCA’s inadequate budget analysis, which is part of the demand management process.
“Bids are not being evaluated according to the evaluation criteria as per the bid specifications and scoring is inconsistent during the bid evaluation process.”
Old machine
The existing licence card printing machine is 26 years old and has experienced almost 160 breakdowns, which have become more frequent.
The transport department told the Sunday Times that 539 947 licences were waiting to be printed, with many applicants having to wait months for their cards.
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