Mbalula Launches Safer Festive season Campaign – Wants to Achieve 25% Reduction in Fatalities by March 2024

Transport minister Fikile Mbalula says his department wants to achieve a 25% reduction in road fatalities by March 2024. 

Mbalula was speaking during the launch of the Safer Festive Season campaign on Monday. 

The Festive Season Road Safety awareness campaign is a government programme that aims to prioritise and promote safer road usage during the high peak season on South African roads.

Mbalula has sent a stern warning to motorists found guilty of contravening road regulations.

“Reckless behaviour on the road and driving under the influence of alcohol is a deliberate act of placing the lives of others in harm’s way.  Similarly, the acts of road rage is taking the law into your own hands and renders you no different from a criminal.” 

Mbalula says road rules are an integral part of the rule of law and compliance is neither optional nor negotiable.

He says in 2019 human factors contributed 85% towards fatal crashes compared to 91% the previous year. 

“This festive season, we urge all South Africans to be responsible on the roads. Let us work together and save lives.  We can only do so if we internalize the principle that road safety is everyone’s business.” 

Mbalula says the National Anti–Corruption Unit will also be hard at work, uprooting “this cancer that undermines our efforts to uphold the rule of law on our roads.”