Minister reveals Mpumalanga’s Easter weekend fatalities more than last year’s

The minister of roads and transport, Fikile Mbalula, said Mpumalanga has recorded a 27.8% increase of road fatalities, from 18 the previous year to 23 this year, during the 2022 Easter weekend.

He spoke during the release of statistics for the 2022 Easter weekend and updates on the driving licence card backlog.

Mbalula said a total of 162 people had died on the roads this year compared to 235 last year, resulting from 134 fatal crashes this year compared to 189 the previous year. Most of the crashes occurred on April 15 and 16.

“Our analysis shows that while the trend of fatalities per time of day continues to show that most fatalities occur at night, a new phenomenon was noted this Easter: fatalities showed a sharp spike in the early hours of the morning between 04:00 and 05:00.

“The peculiar circumstances of this year’s Easter period also had an impact on the number of vehicles involved in road crashes and in the number of people who died on the road. The number of crashes declined by 28.6%, resulting in a 31.5% decline in the number of fatalities on our roads,” he said.

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Mbalula said the success achieved this Easter will add momentum to the efforts to reduce road fatalities by 25% by 2024. Improving law enforcement capability and visibility, as well as upscaling public safety campaigns, will continue to gain traction, he said.

“We have made a commitment to make a telling difference in our law enforcement interventions by ensuring that our officers act without fear or favour while maintaining constant high levels of visibility 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

A total of 2 395 traffic fines were issued for speeding this year compared to 5 923 last year. At total of 3 494 motorists were fined for operating unlicensed vehicles compared to 5 677 the previous year, and 2 134 drivers were fined for driving without fastening seatbelts this year compared to 2 351 the previous year.

Other provinces recorded a decline in road fatalities in the following manner.
• KwaZulu-Natal registered a 61.1% decline from 54 road deaths the previous year to 21 this year.
• Northern Cape registered a 57.1% decline from seven road fatalities the previous year to three this year.
• Free State registered a 53.8% decline from 13 deaths the previous year to six this year.
• North West registered a 45% decline from 20 deaths the previous year to 11 this year.
• Limpopo registered a 44.1% decline from 34 deaths the previous year to 19 this year.
• Gauteng registered a 33.3% decline from 36 deaths the previous year to 24 this year.

With only a week left to the final deadline for the extended grace period for renewal of driving licence cards that expired between March 26, 2020, and August 31, 2021, Mbalula encourages all those who have yet to come forward to renew their licences to do so without delay. There will be no further extension of the grace period beyond this period.

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“We will step up our law enforcement interventions in order to penalise those who wilfully disregard the law and fail to renew their expired licences, while assisting those with genuine challenges. To deal with the expected increase in the demand for services, we are working with the Road Traffic Management Corporation, provincial and local authorities to implement an extensive plan to assist those who will be seeking to renew their licences,” he said.

This plan is already operational in all provinces and entails extending daily operating hours of licence centres by two hours during the week and opening on weekends, both Saturday and Sundays, until May 13.

“Currently the country has a backlog of 1.3 million expired driving licence cards that have yet to be renewed. Analysis of the backlog by the age of drivers who have not renewed their driving licence cards show that motorists between the ages of 25 and 50 constitute 68% of drivers who have yet to renew their licences cards.

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“As of April 27, we have produced a total 789 600 driving licence cards. This leaves a backlog of cards to be printed at 596 513. The backlog that resulted from the breakdown of the machine in November has since been cleared. The DLCA has ramped up its production capability and will be able to clear the current backlog of cards to be printed by the end of June 2022.”