Out of each R100 paid for new credit-card-format licences, R46,50 goes to a company linked to Shabir Shaik - the brother of a man embroiled in the arms deal scandal.

Chippy Shaik was the head of arms acquisitions in the Department of Defence when the multibillion-rand arms deal was put together. He has denied receiving substantial contracts or involvement in irregularities.

The company earning millions of rands for manufacturing the new card licences is Prodiba, a consortium made up Kobitech, which is part of Nkobi Holdings, of which Schabir Shaik is the chairman; Face Technologies, formerly part of arms manufacturer Denel; and Thales. The original contract was worth R264-million.

According to the Department of Transport's contract with Prodiba, the contractor gets R46,50 of each R100 paid for card licences. The rest goes to municipalities.

Fines for late applications are to be paid to the Department of Transport, and some of the money is to be used to offset the costs of the contractor, if they budgeted for a certain number of licences a year and fewer people applied.

The Democratic Alliance's spokesperson on transport, Stewart Farrow, said on Thursday he had called on the auditor-general to investigate three contracts awarded while Mac Maharaj was minister of transport, including the R264-million contract for the credit-card licences in 1996.

This follows payments allegedly made to Maharaj - a claim he has denied.

With acknowledgements to Ashley Smith and The Star.