By Thapelo Molefe
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy is pushing for a total ban on drinking before driving, saying government wants a zero-tolerance alcohol limit on South Africa’s roads after more than 1,400 people died during the 2025/26 festive season.
Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday, she announced plans to amend Section 65 of the National Road Traffic Act to remove the current legal allowance for limited alcohol consumption before driving, effectively banning drinking and driving altogether.
Creecy said the move was driven by evidence that alcohol remains a major contributor to deadly crashes, with the department’s preliminary festive-season report showing that law enforcement tested more than 173,000 drivers for alcohol and arrested 8,561 motorists for drunken driving — a 144% increase in alcohol-related arrests compared with the previous year.
“In today’s South Africa, it is totally unacceptable that there is a law that allows people to drink and then drive,” she said, adding that the proposed amendments would send a strong message about accountability on the roads.
A key concern highlighted in the data is that more than 40% of crashes and fatalities occurred between 15 and 28 December 2025, largely away from national highways.
According to Creecy, these incidents mostly happened on back routes, involved private vehicles, and occurred in the evenings and early hours of the morning, indicating that they were linked to social drinking rather than long-distance travel.
ALSO READ: WATCH: Tshwane building raids uncover converted substations rented as rooms
“These were not long-distance travellers; they were party revellers who had serious accidents that resulted in several deaths,” she said.
Preliminary data released by the department shows that 1,427 fatalities were recorded from 1,172 crashes between 1 December 2025 and 11 January 2026, representing a 5% decrease compared to the same period the previous year.
“While it’s important that the statistics are moving in the right direction, this death toll is completely unacceptable,” Creecy said.
While the decline marks the lowest number of festive-season crashes in five years, Creecy said the figures still represented a national crisis, stating that “death on our roads is not inevitable, and it is not unavoidable”.
The data shows that human behaviour remains the dominant cause of road crashes. About 80% of accidents were attributed to human error, including speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol, and unsafe pedestrian behaviour, while only 20% were linked to environmental factors such as heavy rain and poor road conditions.
ALSO READ: Airlink suspends Hoedspruit flights as floods cut access to Kruger Park
Small motor cars accounted for 55% of vehicles involved in crashes, followed by light delivery vehicles at 20%, while buses and trucks were involved in just 7% and 6% of incidents, respectively.
Law enforcement efforts were significantly intensified during the festive season. More than 1.8 million vehicles were stopped at 1,632 roadblocks nationwide.
Creecy said the figures reinforced the need for a clear and unambiguous legal position on alcohol and driving.
The department said the proposed legislative amendments, combined with sustained enforcement and public education, form part of a broader strategy to halve road deaths by 2030.
However, Creecy warned that laws and policing alone would not be enough without changes in individual behaviour, particularly around alcohol use during the festive season.
INSIDE POLITICS