This is according to the Minister of Transport, Blade Nzimande, who delivered the report on festive season Road Safety earlier this afternoon in Pretoria. The report showed that the Free State province recorded an increase of about 28% in road fatalities as the recorded figure for the 2018/19 period was 159 deaths, compared to last year’s figure of 124.

Despite this increase in fatalities, the province was amongst those in the country which had a lower fatality rate. According to a provincial breakdown of fatalities, the report showed that Kwa-Zulu Natal was leading with fatalities with 267 road-related fatalities recorded. Trailing behind it was Gauteng which recorded 208 road-related deaths, while the Eastern Cape came in third place, with 195 road fatalities recorded.

"The carnage we continue to experience on our roads are instigated by a number of factors mostly embedded in human behaviour and vehicle-related factors. These include alcohol and substance abuse, reckless and negligent driving, unroadworthy vehicles, overtaking on blind rises, total disregard for rules of the road, corruption, distracted driving and failure to use seatbelts," Nzimande said. He further vowed to clamp down on licensing centres, revealing that he has directed the Road Traffic Managing Cooperation to conduct a thorough investigation in each of the driving license and testing centres, where South African nationals involved in these major crashes obtained their licenses. “We're concerned that there are just too many fraudulent licenses on our roads, or even if they are not fraudulent they have been given out fraudulently," Nzimande said.

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