Chikunga: 225 perish on SA roads during Easter
A total of 225 people died on South Africa's roads over the Easter period.
It's 64 more deaths compared to the same period last year.
Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga released the road statistics for the Easter long weekend in Midrand on Friday, saying there were 185 fatal crashes.
"The statistics on gender classification shows that in there was a decrease in female fatalities from 28% in 2022 to 19% in 2023 and male fatalities increased from 67% in 2022 to 70%.
"Most of these are young aspiring professionals whose careers were beginning to shine. They possessed the skills that are needed to grow our country's economy and to reduce poverty, inequality, and underdevelopment."
Chikunga says KwaZulu-Natal, along with the Western Cape, Limpopo, and Gauteng, experienced the highest number of fatal collisions.
"An increase in fatalities was recorded in all provinces except in Mpumalanga, Western Cape and the North West and we congratulate these provinces for the work well done.
"The other six provinces that recorded an increase which is setback that may impact on our ability to attain the goals set out in the United Nations global road safety campaign to reduce road carnages by half in 2030 if not changed.
Pedestrians accounted for the highest number of fatalities.
"The high number of road users who perished on our roads are pedestrians, who accounted for 44,4% of all fatalities, followed by passengers at 27,7%. Drivers accounted for 25.6%, cyclists at 1,3% while the road user status of 1% could not be determined.
"The highest number of pedestrians died in collisions that happened in the Western Cape, Limpopo, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The highest number of fatalities occurred on Friday and the lowest number was recorded on Thursday."
