Nearly $10 billion are lost each year in South Africa due to road accidents, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula revealed on Friday.
“Motorists are urged to exercise extreme caution during the upcoming festive season as road accidents place a huge financial burden on the state,” Mbalula said at the launch of the road safety campaign. the 2022 holiday season.
He recalled in this regard that “more than 90% of accidents can be directly attributed to the human element, which is invariably linked to the violation of traffic laws”.
Stressing that the country’s authorities remain determined to reduce the carnage on the roads in the coming weeks, the minister called on motorists and pedestrians to “respect the laws of the country so as not to infringe on the rights of others to use shared road space”.