South Africa prints every driving-licence card on one machine, bought in 1998. Replacing it has been in procurement since 2022. In August 2023 the Department of Transport's Driving Licence Card Account awarded the contract to the French firm IDEMIA at R898 million — against a budget of R486.385 million approved by Cabinet.
OUTA complained; the Auditor-General audited. Its report, released by Transport Minister Barbara Creecy on 5 March 2025, found that the bid evaluation had deviated from the published criteria, that scoring was inconsistent between evaluators, that the site visit had inspected a machine unrelated to the one tendered, and that the Cabinet memorandum was "not a true reflection of the cost". Rather than defend the award, the department applied to court to have its own tender set aside. On 7 January 2026 the North Gauteng High Court declared it unlawful and ordered re-advertisement within 30 days. Idemia maintained it had "legitimately won this tender" and was "open to constructive dialogue". By then the old printer had broken down for months and a backlog of 2.2 million cards had accumulated, with Home Affairs drafted in on an interim basis.