The outcry over the extension of a transport tender awarded to one of Schabir Shaik's companies has taken a new turn with the ministry confirming that some of the contract's conditions were not met.

Transport minister Jeff Radebe said in reply to a parliamentary question this week that the tender conditions for the supply of barcode scanners to read the credit card driving licences, were not met by Prodiba, one of Shaik's companies which was awarded the contract in 1997.

The department renewed the contract, worth a total of R650-million, this year despite the controversy surrounding the businessman.

In the written reply to a query from the DA, the minister said the department had decided rather to procure card readers "that would make use of the latest technology". This, he added, was viewed as a better investment.

Radebe said 1 000 Card Verification Devices (CVDs) had been supplied to date at a cost of R28 600 each. He could not say how much extra these scanners cost in relation to the original supply agreement with Prodiba. Yesterday, the DA's Stuart Farrow said he was "very perturbed" by the events.

"Reports have also indicated that the reason why the original scanners could not effectively read the credit card licence barcodes was that they were printed one third too small to be readable."

"This means that millions of South Africans were put to unnecessary trouble and expense to obtain utterly useless drivers licences," he said.

He said a further concern was that the scanners were originally priced between R3 000 and R4 000, a far cry from the present prices.

"It seems that Prodiba has not adhered to its original contract and that there can be no justification for the recent renewal of the deal for a further 5 years."

"The extra costs of the new scanners are no doubt being picked up by taxpayers, while Shabir Shaik's company Prodiba has been awarded a further R650-million deal despite what may be a breach of the original contract," he said.

Director-general in the department, Wrenelle Stander, said she "did not know if it is true" that the original scanners were much cheaper than the CVDs currently in use.

With acknowledgements to Sheena Adams and the Pretoria News.