What the R898m tender collapse means for your driver’s licence

As South African motorists eagerly await the extension of driver’s licenses from five to eight years, Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy has revealed why the government has not yet implemented the plan.

This comes after the Gauteng North High Court declared the R898 million tender for new driver’s license card machines unlawful and invalid, saying the procurement process did not follow proper procedures and included irregularities identified by the Auditor-General. The court ordered the tender to be cancelled and re-advertised within 30 days.

While a new service provider is being sought, the department has been allowed to temporarily outsource the printing and issuing of licenses to the Department of Home Affairs.

Creecy said the department is still conducting a study on what the financial implications could be before any decision is taken.

“I have asked the department to do a study on the financial implications of that so that once we take the decision, we should not be in a situation where later on we say, whoops, there were unintended consequences. But I do hope that this year, this is something we can put to bed once and for all. Yes, because I was actually going to ask about those financial implications,” Creecy said to Broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.

The minister added that producing driver’s licenses comes at a high cost, and extending the validity to eight years could reduce revenue, meaning fees might need to be adjusted to ensure the system remains sustainable.

“What I’m saying is that we obviously have a whole system that is in place to produce licenses and make them available to the public. What we have to make sure is that if we’re renewing licenses every eight years, we have enough revenue.

“There could be an implication that there isn’t enough revenue if it’s every eight years, and we may have to increase the tariff. So, that is the issue that one is looking at: how we will balance what it costs us to produce the license with the fact that we will be giving the public a longer period of time for license validity”.

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