Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Transport has thrown its support behind Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy’s call for a zero-tolerance approach to drinking and driving on South Africa’s roads.

The committee’s backing follows the release of the festive season road safety statistics earlier this week, during which Creecy urged for a complete ban on alcohol consumption by drivers as part of stronger interventions to reduce road deaths.

Currently, it is a criminal offence for general drivers to exceed a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05g per 100ml, or 0.24mg per 1000ml in breath.

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Stricter limits apply to professional drivers, who are restricted to 0.02g per 100ml of blood or 0.10mg per 1000ml of breath.

Committee chairperson Donald Selamolela said the scale of drunk driving on the country’s roads has reached an alarming level and requires decisive action.

“The committee supports the consideration of a total ban on alcohol use on the roads. It is clear now that decisive action is required. Otherwise, during the Easter period in three months, high fatality figures are likely to persist,” Selamolela said.

He acknowledged that both the current committee and its predecessors may not have applied sufficient rigour in overseeing road safety measures, despite the growing impact of alcohol-related crashes.

Preliminary statistics from the Festive Season Road Safety Campaign, covering the period from December 1 to January 11, showed a five percent reduction in crashes and fatalities compared to the previous year. Despite this improvement, 1 427 people lost their lives in 1 172 crashes.

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Of particular concern was the sharp rise in drunk driving cases. During the festive season, 8 561 drivers tested positive for alcohol consumption, representing a 144 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Selamolela said stronger consequences are needed to change behaviour and save lives.

“Liability should be placed where necessary, and transgressing drivers should face stiff sanctions, including being banned from ever having a licence to drive. Drunk driving remains a serious and dangerous offence,” he said.

He warned that delays in acting on the issue could result in further preventable deaths on the country’s roads.

“These are deaths that could have easily been avoided. We need to reverse the perception that roads are death traps, and that anyone can behave however they like,” Selamolela added.

The information was provided by the South African Government News Agency.