South Africa’s new driving licence card saga has been plagued with false promises by government officials, unacknowledged delays, suspicious tender practices, and alleged ballooning costs.
In the latest development, the Department of Transport , under Minister Barbara Creecy, announced that the Auditor-General would investigate the tender for producing the new card.
“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 said. “The GPW has proven technical expertise to print cards such as these as it already prints the national smart ID cards used by millions of South Africans,” said the association.
The straw that ultimately broke the camel’s back was the country’s sole driving licence card printer breaking down in November 2021 due to an electrical fault. Frustration over the state of card printing affairs led to complaints from the general public and civil society.A report commissioned by the Road Traffic Management Corporation in 2022 found the machineThe Department of Transport recently also revealed the machine had broken down 159 times in its 26 years of use.
Aside from little transparency on the procurement process for the new machine and cards, government’s announcements regarding the new licence cards have been confusing and contradictory, with multiple missed deadlines and backtracking on validity period extensions.
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