Concerns over spending on outdated driving licence printing machine

THE Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) said it is concerned at how the government continues to spend millions of Rands maintaining its only driving licence card printing machine and the costs to catch up with backlogs.

- MANYANE MANYANE

The organisation said this is concerning because the government has been talking obtaining about a new licence card machine for the past 10 years. This was after Transport Minister, Barbara Creecy, revealed that the machine had been out of service for 38 days since April 1, resulting in a backlog of 733 000 licence cards.

Creecy disclosed this in response to a written parliamentary question from Rise Mzansi leader, Songezo Zibi.

Zibi asked how many times the machine had broken down in the past three financial years, including since the start of the 2025/26 financial year.

He also wanted to know how much had been spent on repairs during this period and how much overtime had been paid to employees due to lost printing time as a result of the breakdowns.

Creecy revealed that the machine was broken for 26 days in the 2022/23 financial year. In 2023/24 it was broken for 48 days. It was also broken for 17 days in 2024/25.