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Amidst a massive backlog in the printing of driver’s licence cards and years of unfulfilled promises of a new licence card printer, AfriForum today demonstrated a fully functioning licence card printer on the doorstep of the Department of Transport’s head offices in the Pretoria city centre. This action was aimed at pointing out to the department that various options are already available locally that meet all the security features of licence cards in order to eliminate the serious backlog. The sample licence cards that AfriForum printed and demonstrated are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), similar to existing ID cards, and feature the face of the Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy.

Following a tender process for the supply of new licence card printers, the department’s bid evaluation committee last year named a foreign company, Idemia, as the preferred bidder. However, the award of this tender was put on hold after allegations of irregularities in other Idemia contracts came to light. An investigation has since been launched, and there is now – more than nine months later – still no sign of progress in the procurement of a new licence card printer or printers. Creecy has also promised that the Government Printing Works will make preparations to provide assistance with the printing of licence cards, if necessary. However, AfriForum has not been able to obtain any further information on this when contacted.

Louis Boshoff, AfriForum Spokesperson, maintains that the delay in clearing the backlog and acquiring new printers is unnecessary. “The department clearly does not have the will to eliminate the problems regarding the printing of licence cards – this despite the fact that there are several local service providers available who have the necessary technology to do the printing,” he explains.

There are several possible printer and card types, with different and sufficient security features, that could be considered for South Africa’s future driver’s licences. However, Boshoff maintains that complex requirements regarding the printer or card type should not prevent the department from finding a solution as soon as possible. “The backlog in printing driver’s licence cards currently stands at approximately 500 000, which means that approximately half a million drivers are at present without valid licence cards. It appears that the government, for political reasons, prefers to drag out the procurement process at the expense of service delivery and does not even consider workable options in the interest of that,” Boshoff concludes.

Issued by AfriForum