Total ban on drinking and driving on the cards, warns transport minister

TRANSPORT Minister Barbara Creecy has pinned her hopes of reducing road accidents on amending legislation which will pave the way for a ban on drinking alcohol while driving.

She was presenting the preliminary road safety statistics for the 2025/2026 festive season and the 2025 period when she announced plans to tighten road regulations.

The country recorded a 5% drop in road fatalities and crashes during the 2025/2026 festive season, which Creecy attributed to the hard work of law enforcement agencies, municipalities, and civil servants.

However, reckless driver behaviour on the roads, including speeding and drunk-driving remained 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.

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, while Gauteng, Western Cape, Mpumalanga, and the Northern Cape, experienced increases. 

“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.

“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 said it is unacceptable that there was 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.

Cape Times