South Africa’s long-delayed plan to modernise its driving licence card system has been thrown back into uncertainty.
This follows the high court in Pretoria overturning a multimillion-rand tender awarded to French technology company Idemia. It declared the tender irregular, invalid and unenforceable.
The ruling was welcomed by transport minister Barbara Creecy on Wednesday. She said that pending the appointment of the successful service provider, the department has been allowed by the court to outsource the printing of the cards to the department of home affairs.
The order comes after the transport department approached the court following findings by the auditor-general pointing to irregularities in the tender process.
The AG identified instances of non-compliance with the required procurement processes linked to supply chain management rules in the Public Finance Management Act, national treasury regulations and driving licence card account (DLCA) agency policies.
The AG also noted that the bid evaluation committee deviated from assessing the bids using the exact criteria set out in bid specifications when evaluating the documents provided by bidders. This resulted in an unfair and non-transparent procurement process.
The inconsistencies were not only related to the technical evaluation. It was found that during site visits, officials were meant to confirm that the machine proposed by the bidder, Idemia’s MX8100, was able to deliver on the requirements. However, they chose to inspect an unrelated machine.
Cancelled
Last year, an Idemia contract with Airports Company South Africa was cancelled on suspicion of wrongdoing, resulting in suspensions at Acsa.
Creecy has described the court order as a “vindication” of the department’s commitment to the transparency and legitimacy of the tender process.
Read: Digital driving licences back on the agenda in South Africa
The department said on Wednesday that the DLCA agency cleared the driving licence card backlogs that were outstanding for printing on 9 December. The printing machine broke down between February and May 2025.
South Africa’s card licensing system collapsed due to a 26-year-old printer that was not replaced timeously. The bungled tender process held up reforms. According to a report by the Sunday Times, the machine has broken down at least 160 times in its lifetime.
The delivery of new machines has been held up due to the bunged tender. They are meant to be maintained and repaired in the country, instead of being shipped overseas.
On the interim solution, the department said on Wednesday the State Security Agency has approved a prototype designed by the government printing works (GPW).
Read: Acsa CIO placed on precautionary suspension
“The establishment between the Road Traffic Management Corporation and GPW was successfully tested. This will allow for the transfer of data/files required by GPW to print the driving licence cards,” it said. A cabinet process to approve the prototype design is the next step. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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