South Africa’s Driving Licence Card Agency team is working overtime to clear the backlog of driver’s licences that need to be issued after the country’s only card printer returned to operation last week.
Transport department spokesperson Collen Msibi said the printer had returned to operation after undergoing repairs when it broke down on February 5, leading to a backlog of 747 748 cards that need to be printed.
According to the department, the backlog of cards at the beginning of May was as follows: Gauteng, 252 745; KwaZulu-Natal, 115 020; Western Cape, 108 402; Mpumalanga, 66 833; Limpopo, 61 769; Eastern Cape, 55 393; North West, 39 983; Free State, 33 741 and Northern Cape: 13 862.
“With the catch-up plan, updates on the backlog reduction will be provided as and when significant progress is made. However, the backlog reduction is also dependent on the number of orders received on a daily basis,” Msibi said.
The printing machine is more than 20 years old and requires imported parts for repairs when it regularly breaks down.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has raised concerns regarding the constant breakdowns, saying the department needs to implement a long-term solution to the ongoing “critical problem”.
“It is a relief to hear that the machine has been repaired, but the question is how soon it will break down again. This old card machine is prone to regular breakdowns and is bound to break down again. It is also seriously lacking in modern security features,” Outa executive director Stefanie Fick said.
“The long-term solution, which is a decade overdue, is the finalisation of the new driving licence card solution, either through a tender awarded to a private company or through the Government Printing Works, which successfully manages the printing of ID cards for the Department of Home Affairs.
“We want a new machine procured, and we want the validity of the cards extended to 10 years,” Fick said.
Outa has repeatedly called for a new machine to be procured, for improved transparency in the procurement process, and for the validity of the cards to be doubled from the existing five years to 10 years.
DLCA awarded the tender for a new machine to Idemia Identity and Security South Africa for R898 597 131 on August 8, 2024.
However, in September 2024, Outa handed Transport Minister Barbara Creecy a report on alleged irregularities in the procurement process and called for the tender to be overturned. Creecy passed the report to the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA).
On March 5, Creecy announced that the AGSA investigation had found irregularities in the tender process and that she had instructed her department to lodge a high court application for a declaratory order on the DLCA tender award to Idemia for guidance on how to proceed in light of the AGSA findings.
However, Outa said it appeared the high court application had not gone ahead and its CEO Wayne Duvenage had written to the minister on March 27 asking for clarity on the situation. No reply has been received yet.
In his letter, Duvenage said Outa had heard that the Department of Transport’s legal department and director-general had both warned the minister against cancelling the Idemia contract.
Duvenage noted, however, that “the AGSA report was clear in its flagging of several irregularities, including that ‘the winning bid was non-compliant’. The AGSA recommended that the awarding of this tender be cancelled. This is sufficient reason for you to be confident in the decision you have taken.”
Outa added that the DLCA did not appear to have issued a new tender for the machine.
However, on March 10, the DLCA issued a tender looking at how to make more money out of the driving licence cards.
The bid called for “a qualified service provider to conduct a review of the current cost model and develop a new cost model that will be aligned to a fair recoverable amount for the driver’s licence card”.
The bid document says that “the DLCA has finalised the appointment of a service provider to acquire/procure the new driving licence card production machine”, that it last adjusted tariffs in January 2014, and that the “DLCA is of the opinion that it is not realising/recovering the total cost to produce the driver’s licence card”.
“Does this mean that the DLCA has no intention of abandoning the Idemia contract, and that it signed up for a contract it cannot afford?” Outa said.
The bid closed on April 11, and there was no indication of whether it had been awarded.
