Pretoria - A concerned Minister of Transport, Blade Nzimande, today revealed that young people are losing their lives on the roads largely due to fatigue, drunken and negligent driving.
Nzimande was releasing the mid-festive season preliminary road safety report which indicated that road fatalities have increased in all provinces except Gauteng that recorded a 10% decrease.
Nzimande, accompanied by board members of the Road Traffic Management Corporation, revealed that a total of 767 fatalities have already been recorded this festive season and that's an increase of 16%.
The Department of Transport spokesperson Ismail Mnisi said government was concerned that young people, mostly young men who also happened to breadwinners in their families, were losing their lives on roads.
However, "very disturbingly" the number of females involved in fatalities increased from 23% to 27%, while males contributed 72% of total of fatalities.
Nzimande said KwaZulu-Natal has so far recorded the highest number with 162 fatalities, followed by Gauteng with 125. Limpopo and the Eastern Cape had 89 fatalities each, while Mpumalanga had 82, Western Cape 81, Free State 78, North West 57 and the Northern Cape 24.
He said the department aspired for legislation that would allow the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) to prosecute traffic law offenders speedily through the use of evidence collected with fourth industrial revolution technologies that allowed drunken drivers' blood tests to be done on the spot.
Although the minister commended good drivers who arrived at their destinations safely without causing problems, he anticipated that more and more people would be travelling over the Christmas and New Year's Eve long weekends.
"We anticipate that more people will be travelling again on December 28 in preparation for New Year's Eve.
"The last peak travel period will be on the weekend of January 5 and 6 when travellers are expected to return to their homes and places of work for the re-opening of industries and schools."