EUGENE HERBERT
Government may be tempted to exchange congratulatory high-fives over a reported 5% drop in festive-season road fatalities, but the statistics tell a far less comforting story. During the 2025/2026 festive period, 1,427 people still lost their lives on South Africa’s roads, a toll that strips any marginal improvement of real cause for celebration.
Yes, fatalities declined by 75 deaths compared to last year, and crashes fell to their lowest level in five years. But this “improvement” merely drags the country back to 2023/2024 levels, undoing the 5% spike recorded last year. It is not progress; it is recovery of lost ground. A nation serious about road safety should be demanding sustained, year-on-year reductions—not oscillation around the same tragic baseline.
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy captured this uncomfortable reality when she described the figures as a “reason for national shame.” Behind the percentages are more than 1,400 families who entered the new year burdened by grief, financial hardship and lifelong trauma, outcomes that remain stubbornly routine despite decades of road-safety campaigns.
The persistence of alcohol-related crashes further exposes the limits of current interventions. More than 8,000 motorists were arrested for driving under the influence during the period, underlining how little deterrence existing laws and enforcement appear to offer. While political attention continues to circle around the idea of a zero-BAC limit, Creecy acknowledged an inconvenient truth: simply rewriting the law is unlikely to change behaviour on its own.
South Africa already outlaws impaired driving; what it struggles with is compliance, enforcement and social norms. Even a zero-tolerance alcohol law would fail if enforcement remains inconsistent and public attitudes toward drinking and driving stay permissive. Real progress requires long-term, systemic change—better policing, credible prosecution, smarter road design and a sustained effort to stigmatise reckless behaviour behind the wheel.
As the country moves forward into another year, the focus should not be on marginal statistical gains but on the preventable decisions that continue to kill thousands annually. A 5% drop is not a breakthrough. It is a reminder of how low the bar has been set and how far South Africa still is from a road-safety system that genuinely protects its citizens.
MasterDrive extends its condolences to all families affected by festive-season road fatalities. These losses are not inevitable. Treating them as anything less than a national crisis only ensures the numbers will return—again and again—disguised as “improvement.”
Eugene Herbert is the CEO of MasterDrive, based in South Africa
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