NOORDWESTER -LICHTENBURG - Minister Barbara Creecy’s preliminary announcement with regard to fatalities and crashes was released this week. Tragically, South Africa witnessed 1 502 deaths resulting from 1 234 fatal crashes during the 2024/25 festive season.
Creecy said that our country has a long way to go to reduce the carnage on our roads. As if the news reports of terrible crashes and the resultant deaths and injuries day-in and day-out over the festive season were not enough, the statistics released tell that South African road users continue to disobey the traffic laws with no regard for human life. This has tragic consequences.
Stringent monitoring was in place on the 20 priority routes and, alongside patrolling and law enforcement interventions, the Department of Transport and the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) launched a communications campaign with targeted messaging on radio, television and social media during this period.
Traffic law enforcement officers conducted more than 997 roadblocks throughout the country during the festive season. These roadblocks were joint operations between local, provincial and national traffic authorities, the South African Police Service (SAPS) and often included other law enforcement agencies such as the Border Management Authority (BMA). The joint operations carried out during the festive season were in line with the focus areas: vehicle road worthiness, public passenger transport, drunken driving, execution of warrants of arrest and speed law enforcement.
To clamp down on drunken driving, speeding and other moving violations, officers arrested more than 9 550 motorists, with 3 840 individuals arrested for drunken driving.
A total of 414 drivers were arrested for driving at high speed and five amongst them were driving at excessive speeds of between 200km/h to well above 240km/h.
There must be consequences for drivers who break the law with wanton disregard for the lives of other road users, whether it is for speeding or drunk driving or any other offence which warrants arrest and prosecution.
The number of fatalities represents a year-on-year increase of 5.3% (70) compared to the 2023/24 festive season, with a 4.2% (50) increase in the number of crashes. This reverses the incremental strides made in recent years.
Six provinces recorded increases in the number of fatalities in the 2024/25 festive season compared to 2023/24, namely KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Free State, Limpopo, Northern Cape and North West.
It is notable that there were 18 major crashes resulting in 134 fatalities, while minibuses were involved in 53% of major crashes.
Pedestrian fatalities remain a huge concern, with 41% of all road fatalities being pedestrians.
All the more disturbing, then, is the fact that most crashes and deaths are a result of human factors. To be precise, 87% of crashes happened because of human behaviour, including hit-and-runs, jay-walking, fatigue, loss of control over vehicles, speed, drunken driving, reckless overtaking.
Drivers and pedestrians must change their behaviour. They must obey the law and the basic rules of the road.
The provincial statistics are as follows:
KwaZulu-Natal 304 fatalities from 247 fatal crashes
Gauteng 235 fatalities from 224 fatal crashes
Eastern Cape 231 fatalities from 168 fatal crashes
Limpopo 180 fatalities from 140 fatal crashes
Mpumalanga 143 fatalities from 118 fatal crashes
Western Cape 140 fatalities from 124 fatal crashes
Free State 106 fatalities from 81 fatal crashes
North West 100 fatalities from 87 fatal crashes
Northern Cape 63 fatalities from 45 fatal crashes
