With the Easter long weekend falling at month end, this contributed to increased consumption of liquor, leading to more cases of drunk driving on the country's roads.
This is according to transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga, who told the public broadcaster that the month-end long weekend brought challenges.
Speaking from the Mariannhill Toll Plaza in Durban on Monday, Chikunga said law enforcement officers had their hands full.
“People have money, and you know in South Africa that when people have money then they drink. This is what happened this month. We are doing a lot within our capacity and capability,” Chikunga said.
She said if it wasn't for the efforts of traffic law enforcement officers and road safety initiatives, the situation could have been more dire.
“If it wasn't for that maybe we would be talking about big numbers of people that may have perished on our roads. Our work is informed by data, we are therefore anticipating that many people today will be driving back to work,” she said.
Chikunga said the department was struggling, especially in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
She discouraged motorists from drinking and driving as that leads to crashes and road fatalities.
“It is too costly, not only for the families, not only for communities but for the country. Some of them don't die, they get admitted to the ICU.”
Speeding and drunk driving have been cited among the major causes of fatal crashes on South African roads during the Easter long weekend.
Four people died on Sunday in Mpumalanga, a driver who clocked 200km/h was arrested in Limpopo, and 45 people were killed on their way to the Zion Christian Church in Moria in what was the weekend's largest fatality crash.
On Sunday afternoon in Mpumalanga, four people were killed when an articulated truck and a sedan were involved in a head-on collision on the R23 between Standerton and Perdekop.
“All the deceased were occupants in the sedan. The driver of the truck escaped with slight injuries,” said Mpumalanga department of community safety, security and liaison spokesperson Moeti Mmusi.
On Monday afternoon, a 30-year-old man was arrested in Limpopo for clocking 200km/h in a 120km/h zone on the N1 highway near Mokopane in Waterberg district.
The man who was driving a Mercedes-Benz is scheduled to appear at the Mokopane magistrate’s court on Tuesday.
“Speeding drivers are considered a menace to society. Their reckless behaviour often leads to fatal crashes,” said Limpopo department of transport spokesperson Tidimalo Chuene.
Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) spokesperson Simon Zwane said more than 1,000 road users were arrested and 900 vehicles impounded by law enforcement officers in operations across the country over the weekend.
He said the arrests related to offences including drunk driving, false driving documentation, reckless driving, operating on the roads without driving permits and overloading of vehicles with goods and passengers.
The City of Tshwane recorded 12 car crashes and three pedestrian accidents during this year's Easter weekend compared with 32 motor vehicle accidents and seven pedestrian incidents reported between April 6 and 10 last year.
“The number of fatalities recorded in 2024 is 13, and three in 2023,” said Tshwane EMS spokesperson Charles Mabaso.
He said three motorists lost their lives in an accident on the R55 and Lochner Road in Raslow near Centurion on Friday, while another three sustained injuries ranging from critical to severe when two vehicles collided.
“A bakkie overturned on the N14 before the R55 Road on Friday.” He said the accident claimed three lives and three patients were transported to hospital with injuries ranging from critical to severe.
He added a bakkie overturned on Britz Road near the Straightfontein Butchery, north of Pretoria, on Saturday.
“Emergency services arrived on the scene to find the two critically injured motorists still trapped inside the wreckage of the bakkie and had to use the jaws of life to free them,” he said.
Four teenagers were declared dead on the scene when their vehicle lost control and crashed into a wall on Thabo Sehume Street, between Nelson Mandela Drive and Steve Biko Street, in the Pretoria City Centre on Saturday.
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