Back to square one for South Africa’s new driver’s licence card printer

The Pretoria High Court has handed down a declaratory order setting aside the controversial tender that appointed Idemia as the preferred bidder for South Africa’s new driver’s licence card printer.

The original tender was issued by the Department of Transport (DoT) to procure a new printer to replace the country’s sole, unreliable machine.

However, the tender was flagged over multiple discrepancies, prompting an investigation by the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA).

This tender has now been put aside, and the DoT has been instructed to re-advertise the tender within 30 days.

“The Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy and the Transport Deputy Minister, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, have welcomed the High Court’s declaratory order,” the department said in a statement.

“On 6 January 2026, the Gauteng North High Court declared that the tender was irregular, invalid, unlawful, and unenforceable.”

The order follows a court application after the AGSA discovered several irregularities with the tender process.

The tender has been issued and withdrawn numerous times over the years.

Following the most recent tender advertisement, the DoT announced in August 2024 that Idemia had been selected as the winning bidder to procure South Africa’s new licence card printer.

The announcement was met with backlash from civil groups like the Organization Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), which organized a meeting with the transport minister to highlight irregularities in the selection process.

Outa submitted a detailed report outlining its concerns, which prompted Creecy to involve the AGSA and launch an investigation into the matter.

The biggest concern involved the tender’s budget, which had nearly doubled from Cabinet’s approved allocation of R486 million to R899 million.

The AGSA concluded that Idemia had failed to meet key technical bid requirements.

However, it noted that other bidders weren’t unfairly disqualified as they too failed to meet the bid’s technical specification.

“All bids submitted exceeded that R486 million budget set by the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA), indicating inadequate market analysis and budgeting,” the AGSA said.

“The DLCA used outdated pre-Covid prices, and the budget they submitted to cabinet for approval did not include all the costs for the contract, leading to cabinet approving a memo that was not a true reflection of the cost of the contract.”

The high court ultimately set aside the tender, declaring it ireggular, invalid, unlawful, and unenforcable.

Minister Creecy welcomed the decision, claiming that the outcome “is a vindication of the department’s commitment to transparency and legitimacy.”

“The decision to approach the court for guidance on the matter was a necessary step for effective regulation,” she said.

This is a very different reaction to the one displayed by the DoT when the tender was first announced.

Department Spokesperson Collen Msibi previously defended the appointment, stating “the processes were above board, as far as we are concerned, and the process that we undertook clears us in terms of saying that the prescribed legislation and the policies were followed.”

A pattern of tender irregularities

Outa pointed out that the tender cost had shot up from R486 million to R899 million, and that Idemia’s bid had also increased from R762 million to R898.6 million.

“Outa highlighted several irregularities, including multiple reissues and extensions of the tender, suggesting favouritism towards a specific bidder,” it said. 

The tender was issued by the Driving Licence Card Account, which is an entity under the Department of Transport.

The tender ran three times between 2021 and 2023, and were cancelled and re-issued without clear reasons, according to Outa.

This is not the first time the French technology company Idemia has been implicated in suspicious tenders with South African state-owned entities.

The company was previously awarded a R115 million contract to implement new biometric e-gates at the country’s airports.

Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) uncovered evidence of wrongdoing in the tender process.

The company’s local BEE partner, InfoVerge, then took the matter to court.

Following an investigation, ACSA dismissed its Chief Information Officer and cancelled Idemia’s contract.

The DoT was made aware of the ACSA controversy shortly after appointing Idemia for the driver’s licence tender.

Msibi said the DoT was aware of the scandal but was under pressure to clear the country’s backlog of licence renewals, and that it would have been criticised if it had halted the tender process while the ACSA investigation was carried out.

Idemia has denied any wrongdoing in the tender process for the driver’s licence card printer, stating it won the contract legitimately and lawfully.