Over the past three and a half years, R12 million has been spent to repair and maintain South Africa’s only driver’s licence card printing machine, which has suffered frequent breakdowns.

This information was disclosed by Transport Minister Barbara Creecy in a written parliamentary reply.

Songezo Zibi, leader of Rise Mzansi, quizzed the minister regarding the 26-year-old machine, which had been out of operation for much of this year, resulting in a significant backlog of driver’s licence cards.

Zibi asked how many times the machine had broken down over the past three financial years, including the current 2025/2026 financial year, and the total cost of those repairs.

He also sought details on how much overtime pay had been made to employees due to printing delays, as well as the number of staff required to operate the machine effectively.

The machine, which produces around 300 000 cards per month, resumed production in early May.

In her response, Creecy revealed that the machine was non-operational for 26 working days during the 2022/2023 financial year, with repair and maintenance costs amounting to R9 267 862.33.

In the 2023/2024 financial year, it was down for 48 days, incurring costs of R1 651 772.57.

The following year, the machine was out of commission for 17 days, with R544 747.64 spent on repairs.

The machine has been out of operation for 38 days in the current financial year, with R624 988.10 spent on repairs and maintenance.

Over the entire period, the machine was offline for a total of 129 days, with total maintenance costs adding up to R12 089 370.57.

Creecy also said overtime payments over the three years amounted to R4.4 million.

The overtime breakdown was R1 435 376.79 in 2022/2023, R1 608 102.52 in 2023/2024, and R1 351 473.78 in 2024/2025.

No overtime payments have been made so far in the current financial year.

She added that four operators are needed to operate the printing machine effectively.

As of 15 May, the backlog in driver’s licence cards stood at 733 000.

In response to a question about the acquisition of a new machine, Creecy said: “The minister has directed that a declaratory order be sought from a competent court on the tender to acquire a new machine, in order to ensure that no further irregular expenditure occurs.”

In March, Creecy instructed the Department of Transport to seek a High Court declaratory order regarding the tender.

This decision followed findings by the Auditor-General that the procurement process for the R898 million contract awarded to the South African subsidiary of French multinational technology company, Idemia, in August 2024 was irregular.

The bidding process began in April and concluded in May 2023.

According to the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), the Driving Licence Card Account had budgeted just over R486 million for the new machine, while Idemia’s bid was reportedly either R762 million or R898 million.

Other companies that submitted bids included Ren-Form Corporate Print Media, Nec Xon Systems, Muehlbauer ID Services, and Gemalto Altron Fintech Southern Africa.