A recent flurry of enforcement action in Johannesburg and across Gauteng highlights a harsh truth about life on South Africa’s not roads. Every time a driver decides to get behind the wheel while intoxicated they are deliberately placing themselves and others in mortal danger.
Between Monday 13 October 2025 and Sunday 19 October 2025 the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) arrested 185 motorists for driving under the influence of alcohol across all regions of the City of Johannesburg. The operations included visible policing, roadblocks and a sustained campaign of high-visibility activity.
The JMPD characterises these arrests as a reflection of its zero-tolerance approach to behaviour that endangers every resident and road-user. The message from the Acting Chief of Police, Eldred Fortein, was clear: intoxicated or negligent driving will be met with enforcement, offenders will be found and accountability will follow.
At the provincial scale in Gauteng, the South African Police Service (SAPS) launched the “Safer Festive Season” operations from Friday 17 October 2025. On Saturday 18 October 2025 alone seventy-five suspects were arrested for driving while under the influence of alcohol.
Across the weekend more than one-thousand other suspects were apprehended for various offences including dealing in liquor, drugs, illegal immigration, unlicensed firearms, hijacking, murder and gender-based violence.
In the Johannesburg District alone 218 suspects were arrested for possession of unlicensed firearms, assaults and malicious damage to property. In the Tshwane District 463 were arrested for crimes from hijacking to kidnapping; in Ekurhuleni 154 suspects were arrested; in Sedibeng and West Rand a further 179 suspects were arrested for illegal liquor and property offences. These statistics underline not just an alcohol-driving problem but also a broader law-and-order challenge.
Behind the statistics lie cold facts about the role of alcohol in fatal and serious collisions. According to research by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) between 2016 and 2018 a sample of 13 074 fatal crashes revealed significantly increased risk for those involving intoxicated drivers. The risk was greater for crashes involving multiple victims including pedestrians and for light vehicles and buses rather than heavy trucks.
Crashes at night, over long weekends and during non-vacation periods showed higher incidence of intoxication-related fatal collisions. The report pointed to driver intoxication as a distinct and significant factor, not simply one among many lesser contributors.
Further figures underscore the magnitude of the problem. Studies estimate that up to 27 percent of driver-error attributed fatal crashes involve alcohol intoxication. One RTMC-commissioned research review puts alcohol-related RTCs (road traffic crashes) at somewhere between 33 percent and 69 percent of crashes depending on the study and definition used. The human cost is immense and the economic and social consequences ripple through families and communities long after the crash.
The recent week’s arrests send a strong message: law enforcement is active, roadblocks and visibility operations are being deployed and recorded behaviour will result in arrest. These arrests are not isolated events but part of a broader enforcement wave aligned with national statistics showing alcohol as a persistent risk factor for mortality on South African roads. Intoxicated driving remains one of the most preventable contributors to road deaths. It is behaviour that can be predicted, monitored and deterred.
Each arrest of a driver under the influence is one fewer dangerous vehicle on the road, one fewer set of wheels where reaction time is blunted, judgment is impaired, coordination is diminished, brakes are slower to react, hazard perception is degraded. Drivers under the influence are more likely to cause head-on collisions, side-swipes, pedestrian fatalities and multi-vehicle chain collisions. RTMC data shows the risk spikes at night, on weekends and during periods when alcohol consumption is more common.
The scale of the problem demands both enforcement and individual change. On the enforcement side the large numbers of arrests by JMPD and Gauteng police show what can be done when operations are concentrated and visible. On the individual level every motorist must make the correct decision: plan alternate travel arrangements when consuming alcohol, do not assume you can ‘just drive home’, recognise that your blood alcohol may already impair you even if you feel fine, ensure your vehicle documentation is in order, vehicle is roadworthy and you adhere to speed limits and traffic regulations.
The stakes are high. RTMC reports suggest that South Africa recorded a traffic-fatality rate of around 20 per 100 000 population in recent years. Pedestrians account for a large portion of road deaths and when a vehicle is driven by an intoxicated driver the pedestrian’s vulnerability increases significantly. The enormity of the lost lives, of the amputations, brain injuries, lifelong disabilities, economic burdens and shattered families should not be hidden behind statistics but confronted in policy, enforcement and personal responsibility.
The week’s enforcement actions in Johannesburg and Gauteng should serve not only as warning but as impetus for sustained change. Every driver who chooses to take a sober, responsible decision to let someone else drive or to arrange another way home contributes to safer roads for all. Every enforcement operation that removes an impaired driver from the road potentially saves lives. The combination of policing, public awareness, infrastructure, legislation and personal accountability is necessary because alcohol-impaired driving is not a marginal issue; it is central to South Africa’s road-safety challenge.
With 185 arrests in one week by JMPD, and 75 plus in one day in Gauteng for DUI offences, the message is unambiguous: the authorities are active, the data is clear and the danger is real. The only way to reduce these numbers over time is through consistent enforcement, cultural change and a collective refusal to allow impaired driving to continue.
