Green light for government printer to produce driving licence cards

The High Court in Pretoria has given the Department of Transport (DoT) permission to outsource the printing and issuing of driving licences to the Government Printing Works (GPW).

This follows the same court declaring a tender, in terms of which Idemia South Africa (Pty) Ltd was appointed as service provider, invalid, irregular, unlawful and unenforceable and setting it aside.

Read: New smart card driving licence machines to replace broken card machine [Jan 2022]

In a judgment handed down on Tuesday, Acting Judge M Smit ordered the DoT to readvertise the tender for the provision, installation, maintenance of equipment with related infrastructure and raw materials for the personalisation of the smart driving licence card within 30 days of her order.

Smit further ordered that pending the appointment of a service provider under the readvertised tender, the DoT is permitted to outsource the service of printing and issuing of drivers’ licences to its sister department, the Department of Home Affairs.

The GPW reports to the Department of Home Affairs. It specialises in security printing of important national documents such as passports, visas, birth certificates, green ID books, smart card IDs, examination materials, and general government printing such as stationery and publications, including Government Gazettes.

Court involvement in how to proceed with tender

Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy instructed the DoT to approach the High Court in Pretoria for a declaratory order on how to proceed with the driving licence card machine tender, given that the Auditor-General (AG) found the award of the tender was irregular.

Creecy asked the AG to investigate the award process after the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) provided her with new evidence of alleged serious irregularities in the tender decision.

Read:
‘Big red flags’ around smart card driving licence procurement process – Outa
DoT urged to pause driving licence card machine procurement
R898m driving licence card machine tender award ‘irregular’ – AG audit

The tender, worth R898 million, was awarded by the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) to Idemia Identity and Security South Africa, part of French multinational technology company Idemia.

The budget set by the DLCA for the purchase of the machine was just over R486 million.

Creecy and DoT Deputy Minister Mkhuleko Hlengwa on Wednesday welcomed the high court’s declaratory order setting aside the appointment of Idemia as the preferred bidder.

Creecy said the court outcome is a vindication of the DoT’s commitment to the transparency and legitimacy of tender processes, with the decision to approach the court for guidance on the matter a necessary step for effective regulation.

Security agency approves prototype card

In an update on the interim solution, the DoT said on Wednesday the State Security Agency has approved the prototype driving licence card designed by the GPW.

It said the establishment of the network connection between the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and GPW was successfully tested, which will allow the transfer of data/files required by GPW to print the driving licence cards.

Read:
RTMC CEO’s suspension due to host of serious whistleblower allegations
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The department said a cabinet process will soon be undertaken to seek cabinet approval of the prototype design.

Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said on Wednesday the organisation also welcomes the high court order and urges the DLCA and RTMC to resolve the long-outstanding issue.

He said the tender for a new machine has previously been published and cancelled “and gone back and forth for the past about seven years” because there has been political interference.

“From our point of view, what we have seen is deliberate overpricing, which is corruption to us, and we [need to] get this done now sooner than later,” said Duvenage.

“We mustn’t be sitting here in a year’s time and not have this resolved. Get the tenders done and then make a decision.”

He added that the government must at all times take into account what is best for the public, best in terms of cost, and best in terms of solutions.

Accountability?

Duvenage questioned what Creecy has done to hold those people accountable for the tender that was awarded to Idemia – where Outa showed there were gross irregularities in the tender process, manipulation of the bid evaluation committee, and the bid adjudication committee not applying due process.

“People in the background were involved in activities that were highly dubious, questionable and irregular.

“Has anybody been hauled over the coals, [faced] disciplinary action and potentially fired, and potentially even charged for criminal conduct that took place?”

Duvenage said this is the second time Idemia has been involved in irregularities, with irregularities previously also reported by the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa).

He said Idemia should now be blacklisted on National Treasury’s supplier database as an undesirable supplier to government because of its conduct.

Read:

The DoT on Wednesday also provided an update on the backlog in the printing of driving licences following the breakdown and subsequent unavailability of the printing machine between February and May 2025.

It said the DLCA cleared the backlog on 9 December, adding that “2 239 456 driving licence cards were printed” between 8 May and 8 December 2025.

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