By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI

21 January 2025- The Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy said South Africa has a long way to go to reduce the carnage on the roads. Creecy said, 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 which they released tell all of them that South African road users continue to disobey the traffic laws with no regard for human life – that has had and continues to have tragic consequences.

She further said at the launch of the festive season road safety campaign on 1 December 2024, just more than a month-and-a-half ago, they said they were aiming to change road user behaviour, enhance their law enforcement actions and work together with everyone involved to reduce crashes and fatalities.

Creecy added that the campaign was based on four pillars, which were responsible driving, pedestrian safety, enforcement and education collaboration.

“The stringent monitoring was in place on the 20 priority routes and, alongside our 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.

“We partnered with civil society groups and faith-based organisations, who helped to spread road safety messages in their communities, to ensure that all road users are aware of their roles and responsibilities, and the impact of their actions,” she said.

According to Creecy, their traffic law enforcement officers conducted more than 997 roadblocks throughout the country during the festive season. She said 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).

“To give you a sense of the appalling lack of respect for the traffic laws, I want to share a few important numbers which will help all of us to better understand the very serious problem we are dealing with.

“Our law enforcement officers issued 711,184 fines for various traffic offences across the country. Some 23,607 fines were issued to drivers who failed to wear seatbelts, while another 16,925 motorists were fined for using cell phones while driving,” said Creecy.

She said then 16,527 vehicles were found to be unroadworthy and issued with traffic fines, as well as their motor vehicle licence discs removed, particularly in areas where vehicles could not be impounded due to lack of impoundment facilities. Creecy said it must however be emphasized that, in total, 8917 motor vehicles were impounded in areas where facilities were available.

“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, our officers arrested more than 9,550 motorists, with 3,840 individuals arrested for drunken driving,” she said.

Creecy said a total of 414 drivers were arrested for driving at high speed and 5 amongst them were driving at excessive speeds of between 200km/h to well above 240km/h. She said the highest speedster was arrested in Gauteng driving at 245km/h in a BMW Sedan on N1 near Honeydew, on 18 December 2024.

“On behalf of the national Department of Transport, provincial MECs and their departments, and all law enforcement agencies, I call on the courts to treat these cases with the seriousness they deserve.

“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,” said Creecy.

She said with regard to fatalities and crashes, tragically, South Africa witnessed 1,502 deaths resulting from 1,234 fatal crashes during the 2024/25 festive season. Creecy said she wants to convey her heartfelt condolences to the families who lost loved ones during this period and her well wishes to all those who are still recuperating in hospitals as well as at home.

“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 is most regrettable, more so because it 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,” she said.

Creecy said the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State, recorded increases of 70, 54 and 21 fatalities as compared to 2023/24, while Gauteng, Western Cape and Mpumalanga recorded decreases of 76, 23 and 15 fatalities respectively.

“I would like to commend the provincial MECs and traffic authorities in these three provinces for the fact that their efforts have yielded positive results, but I also want to commend all MECs and indeed all national and provincial law enforcement agencies and officers, road safety personnel, emergency services and health professionals who worked long hours, sacrificing family time and did their utmost to save lives on South Africa’s roads.

“The MECs met every three days over the festive season to assess the campaign, to identify areas for improvement and to move resources to where it was most needed,” she said.

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