Transport Minister Barbara Creecy is poised to introduce a ban on drinking alcoholic beverages while driving through the amendment of the existing road regulations with a view to reducing road accidents.

Creecy announced plans to tighten road regulations during a media briefing on Thursday in Pretoria, where she presented preliminary road safety statistics for the 2025/2026 festive season and the 2025 period.

She praised law enforcement agencies, municipalities, and civil servants for their role in achieving a 5% drop in road fatalities and crashes during the 2025/2026 festive season. However, she emphasised that reckless driver behaviour remains the leading cause of road trauma, adding that speeding and drunk-driving were major contributors to accidents.

Preliminary road safety statistics showed that a total of 1,427 fatalities were recorded from 1,172 crashes during the festive season.

Creecy said according to the data, the festive season recorded the lowest number of crashes in five years, with fatalities matching those of the 2023/2024 season.

The Eastern Cape recorded the highest percentage reduction in road fatalities, followed closely by the Free State, she said.

On the other hand, four provinces, Gauteng, Western Cape, Mpumalanga, and the Northern Cape, recorded increases in fatalities.

Creecy said: “There was a notable increase in fatalities from the 15th to the 28th of December. These two weeks contributed more than 40% to crashes and fatalities. And this confirms that festive season crashes and fatalities increase when travellers reach their final destination, and they are engaged in festivities rather than during the peak travel period.”

 A significant number of crashes occurred between 7pm and 9pm, with the risk continuing to escalate until 1am.

Joburg, Cape Town, eThekwini, Tshwane, and Nkangala district municipalities recorded the highest pedestrian fatality rates.

Small vehicles accounted for 55% of crashes, large delivery vehicles contributed 20%, while buses and trucks were involved in 6% and 7%  of accidents, respectively.

Creecy reported that over the festive season combined, law enforcement officers conducted 1,632 roadblocks in which 1,8 million were stopped and checked. Over 450,000 traffic fines were issued, with 5,025 drivers busted for excessive speeding.

Additionally, she said a total of 173,000 drivers were tested for drunk driving, with 8,561 testing positive and arrested, representing an 144% increase in the number of arrests for drunk-driving since the previous year.

The highest alcohol reading was in KwaZulu-Natal, where a motorist blew a breath alcohol content 14 times over the legal limit, while the highest speedster was arrested in the Northern Cape for clocking 220 km/h in a 120 km/h zone.

Creecy said: “This year, 89 motorists were arrested for attempting to bribe traffic officers to escape fines or arrests.” 

She said according to the annual statistics for 2025, there has been a significant drop in road collisions and deaths, with 11,418 fatalities recorded from 9,676 crashes, marking the lowest numbers in five years.

“The 2025 crashes decreased by 6.4% when compared to 2024, and the fatalities decreased by 6.2% in the same period,” she said.

She said the road accident reduction was recorded for the first time in many years and set the government on the path to achieving the target of halving road deaths 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 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 the roads,” Creecy said.

She, however, stated that more needs to be done to curb road accidents, suggesting that the driving and drinking policies that were formulated many years ago are set for a major overhaul.

“In today’s South Africa, it is totally unacceptable that there is a law that allows people to drink and drive. I have never understood this. I can not explain this to anyone who has lost their parents, a brother, a sister, or a child as a result of the road accident,” she said.

Creecy added that the time has come for the government to amend the law to ensure a “clear-cut, easy to understand, and unambiguous policy that says drinking and driving are not allowed”. 

“A law that allows drivers to drink a certain amount and then 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 the roads,” she said.

rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za

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