The Department of Transport (DoT) this week confirmed that it has completed the evaluation and adjudication of the bids for service providers for the country’s new driver’s licence cards and printing machines.
Therefore, the last step remaining before the government can introduce the licences is the audit process of the five shortlisted bidders.
The DoT first got the go-ahead to develop new driver’s licence cards for the country back in August 2022, advertising its first tender on 10 November of the same year which proved unsuccessful.
The bid was relisted on the government tender portal on 5 April 2023 under the title: Provision of a Turnkey Solution for Personalisation of Smart Driving Cards in South Africa.
“The above bid closed on 5 May 2023, and owing to its technical complexity, this bid continues to be under consideration, which requires the department to adhere to prescribed supply chain management prescripts and regulations,” said the DoT.
In the latest application, the department received bids from the following companies:
- Ren-form Corporate Print Media
- Nec Xon Systems (Pty) Ltd
- Muehlbauer ID Services
- Gemalto Altron Fintech Southern Africa
- Idemia Identity and Security — South Africa
“With the evaluation and adjudication of the bid completed, the department has emphasised that the bid is undergoing standard and required probity/audit processes. The department cannot finalise the bid process until the above is completed,” it said.
“The department is almost on the brink of pronouncing a new dawn in the driving licence card environment.”
Tender document showing the front of South Africa’s new licence card
A long time coming
The deadline for the introduction of the new driver’s licences has been missed and extended several times since it was first announced that the country would be getting updated cards.
Initially, a pilot project for the new system was supposed to launch in November 2023 before it was rolled out to the public several months later, a date that came and went with complete silence from the DoT.
Then it was announced that the cards would be presented by March 2024, which again, did not happen.
Tender document showing the back of South Africa’s new licence card
Fast forward to April 2024, and the minister of transport Sindisiwe Chikunga said that by the end of the same month the DoT would be “printing new driving licence [cards] and will launch at least the first 100 per province.”
The minister ascribed the lengthy wait to the complexity of procuring the new printing machine that would be capable of producing the more technologically advanced cards.
The calendar flipped over to May 2024 with the DoT still unable to show the work that it was supposedly doing behind the scenes for nearly two years.
Now in June, the entity has come forward on its own accord to tell us that we will have to wait a little while longer before we get the more secure driver’s licences.
The DoT played it safe by not mentioning any new deadlines for the introduction of the cards and printer, though it previously indicated that it would endeavour to launch them before the end of the 2024/2025 financial year, giving itself until the end of March 2025 to complete the final audit of the shortlisted bidders.
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