1 502 deaths on South African roads this festive season

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The Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, released the road safety report for the 2024/2025 festive season in an address delivered this morning, 20 January 2025, in Tshwane. Here are some statistics and key findings highlighted in the address by the Minister including the deaths on South African roads.

South Africa’s roads a ‘very serious problem’

Minister Creecy emphasised at the beginning of her address that there is a significant amount of work required to decrease the high number of deaths on South African roads.

During the 2024/25 festive season, the number of fatalities was 5,3% higher compared to the 2023/24 festive season. Also, there was a 4,2% increase in the number of vehicle crashes. The Festive Season Road Safety Campaign started on 1 December 2024.

Creecy said that from the statistics it is clear that ‘South African road users continue to disobey the traffic laws with no regard for human life’ and that this has had and continues to have tragic consequences. She called the current situation on the country’s roads a ‘very serious problem’.

Just under 1 000 roadblocks over festive season

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).

Shocking statistics

In her address, Creecy highlighted the following statistics – all from the festive season period only – to emphasise the severity of the crisis:

Law enforcement officers issued 711 184 fines for various traffic offences across the country. These included 23 607 fines for drivers who were not wearing seatbelts and 16 925 for drivers using cell phones while driving.

Officers found 16 527 vehicles on the roads that were unroadworthy.

In total, authorities impounded 8 917 vehicles.

Drunk driving, speeding, and fatalities

Over the same period, officers arrested 3 840 individuals for drunken driving.

As far as speeding is concerned, officers arrested a total of 414 drivers for driving at high speed. Among these, the highest speedster was driving at 245km/h in a BMW Sedan. This was on the N1 near Honeydew in Gauteng on 18 December.

There were a total of 1 502 deaths resulting from 1 234 fatal crashes during the 2024/25 festive season. Among these there were 18 major crashes resulting in 134 fatalities.

The province with the highest number of fatalities was KwaZulu-Natal with 304 fatalities from 247 fatal crashes.