Today we report on the progress and preliminary results of our 2025/26 Festive Season Road Safety Campaign and the overall road safety outcomes for the 2025 year as a whole.
Preliminary data indicates a five percent reduction in both fatalities and crashes for this year’s festive season, compared to the same period in the previous year. This year, a total of 1 427 fatalities were recorded from 1 172 crashes this year
The data shows that the 2025/26 festive season recorded the lowest number of crashes in five years, and the same number of fatalities as in 2023/24 festive season
Five provinces reported reductions in fatalities with the highest percentage reduction recorded in the Eastern Cape followed by the Free State
Four provinces namely Gauteng, Western Cape, Mpumalanga, and Northern Cape recorded increases in fatalities
There was a noticeable increase in the number of crashes and fatalities from 15 to 28 of December. These two weeks contributed more than forty percent to crashes and fatalities
This re-confirms that festive season crashes and fatalities increase once travellers have reached their destinations and are engaging in festivities rather than during the peak travel periods
Many of the crashes happened over the weekend between 19H00 and 21H00 and between midnight and 01H00. They involved collision with pedestrians, hit and run, single vehicle overturns and head-on collisions
The highest number of pedestrian fatalities were reported in the City of Cape Town, City of Johannesburg, eThekwini, Nkangala District and the City of Tshwane
The types of vehicles that contributed to most of the crashes were small motor cars with (55 percent), followed by light delivery vehicles. (20 percent)
Minibus vehicles and trucks were involved in only seven percent and six percent of crashes respectively
Over the festive season our combined law enforcement officers conducted 1 632 roadblocks in which 1.8 million vehicles were stopped and checked. More than 450 000 traffic fines were issued, 525 were arrested for excessive speeding
Roadblocks and vehicle inspections targeted roadworthiness, driver fitness, and licensing. A total of 173 695 drivers were tested for driving under the influence of alcohol and 8 561 of these tested positive, a 144 percent increase on the same period last year
The highest alcohol reading was recorded in KwaZulu Natal where one motorist recorded breath alcohol content fourteen times above the legal alcohol limit
The highest speedster was arrested in the Northern Cape where he was clocked at 222 kilometres an hour in a 120-kilometre per hour zone
This year our officers also arrested 89 motorists for attempting to bribe traffic officers to avoid arrest
We completed 2547 physical education and awareness programmes across the country to influence driver, pedestrian and passenger behaviour, including visits to mass transit departure points, malls and other areas of mass convergence. As members of the media know well, we also had a massive community awareness and education campaign on radio, television and social media platforms
This included an increased number of roadblocks, checks for vehicle roadworthiness, driver licenses, seatbelt and child-restraint use as well as clamped down on speeding and drunken driving
A downward trajectory in road crashes and fatalities has also been observed in our annual statistics where preliminary data shows that the number of road collisions and deaths for the twelve-month period in 2025 are the lowest in five years
A total of 11 418 fatalities were recorded from 9 674 crashes in 2025 compared to 12 581 fatalities from 10 633 crashes in 2021. Furthermore the 2025 crashes decreased by six-point four (6.4) percent when compared to 2024 and fatalities decreased by six-point two (6.2) percent in the same period
I want to take this opportunity to thank our traffic officers at national, provincial and local government level, SAPS and emergency services for the sterling work you have done throughout the year which has resulted in this decrease in accidents
I also want to thank provincial MECs, MMCs of Transport in Municipalities as well as traditional authorities, the organised bus, taxi and trucking sectors as well as a large number of civil society organisations for your hard work and dedication which has in large measure contributed to this reduction and for the first time in many years set us on the way to achieving a 50 percent reduction in accidents and fatalities by 2030
In the coming year we will once again work with provinces and municipalities to improve consistent traffic law enforcement on our roads particularly on weekends and public holidays
We will also increase our education and enforcement work targeting pedestrians. In towns, cities and rural areas half of all road deaths are men, women, and children walking alongside or crossing roads
Ladies and gentlemen, members of the media, the number of deaths caused by road accidents is a reason for national shame. All of those who have passed on, over the last year, men, women and children were loved and cherished during their lives and today are sorely missed by their families and friends
Death on our roads is not like old age. There is nothing inevitable or unavoidable about it. Analysis of reported crashes throughout the year confirms that human behaviour and particularly wreckless driver behaviour remains the leading cause of road trauma
Speeding, and drunk -driving remain the major cause of road accidents. I have spoken today of how we will continue our enforcement and behaviour change operations. But we have to do more
Our driving and drinking policy was formulated almost 30 years ago. In today’s South Africa it is totally unacceptable that there is a law that allows people to drink and then drive. I have never understood this
I cannot explain this to anyone who has lost a parent, a brother, a sister, a child as a result of a road accident.
The time has come for us to amend the law so we have a clear-cut, easy to understand and unambiguous policy that says drinking and driving is not allowed
A law that allows drivers to drink a certain amount and get behind the wheel of a car must be scrapped. So we will begin an amendment to section 65 of the National Road Traffic Act
If nothing else we owe this to the memory of the many fellow South Africans who have lost their lives on our roads
#ArriveAlive
#ItBeginsWithMe