EASTERN CAPE – The Eastern Cape has emerged as the country’s road safety champion, recording the highest percentage reduction in traffic fatalities during the 2025/26 festive season in what officials are calling a remarkable turnaround for a province that has historically struggled with road safety.
Speaking at a media briefing in Pretoria on 15 January, Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy said that the preliminary data indicates a 5% reduction in both fatalities and crashes for the 2025/26 festive season, compared to the same period in the previous year.
She said this year, a total of 1,427 fatalities were recorded from 1,172 crashes.
“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,” said Creecy.
“Five provinces reported reductions in fatalities with the highest percentage reduction recorded in the Eastern Cape followed by the Free State.”
She said that 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 December.
These two weeks contributed more than 40% to crashes and fatalities.
“This reconfirms 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,” said Creecy.
She further said that many of the crashes happened over the weekend between 19:00 and 21:00 and between midnight and 01:00.
They involved collisions with pedestrians, hit and run, single vehicle overturns and head-on collisions.
Creecy said that 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.
She said that the types of vehicles that contributed to most of the crashes were small motor cars with 55%, followed by light delivery vehicles with 20%.
Minibus vehicles and trucks were involved in only 7% and 6% 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 people were arrested for excessive speeding,” said Creecy.
She said that 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% increase compared to the same period last year.
Creecy said that the highest alcohol reading was recorded in KwaZulu-Natal where one motorist recorded breath alcohol content 14 times above the legal alcohol limit.
Meanwhile, 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.
Creecy said that this year their officers also arrested 89 motorists for attempting to bribe traffic officers to avoid arrest.
She said that they completed 2,547 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.
In addition, they 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 12-month period in 2025 are the lowest in five years,” said Creecy.
“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 6.4% when compared to 2024 and fatalities decreased by 6.2% in the same period.”
Creecy said that they plan to achieve a 50% reduction in accidents and fatalities by 2030.
She said that in the coming year they will once again plan to work with provinces and municipalities to improve consistent traffic law enforcement on roads, particularly on weekends and public holidays.
They also plan to increase their education and enforcement work targeting pedestrians.
Creecy further said that in towns, cities and rural areas half of all road deaths are men, women, and children walking alongside or crossing roads.
“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,” said Creecy.
“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 reckless driver behaviour remains the leading cause of road trauma.”
Creecy said that speeding, and drunk driving remain the major cause of road accidents.
While she has previously spoken of how they will continue their enforcement and behaviour change operations, she said they must 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,” said Creecy.
“I cannot explain this to anyone who has lost a parent, a brother, a sister, a child because of a road accident.”
Creecy further said that the time has arrived for them to amend the law so everyone has 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,” said Creecy.
“If nothing else, we owe this to the memory of the many fellow South Africans who have lost their lives on our roads.”
