{"id":847979,"date":"2026-01-15T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=847979"},"modified":"2026-01-15T13:53:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T11:53:02","slug":"changes-to-legal-limit-when-drinking-and-driving-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/847979\/changes-to-legal-limit-when-drinking-and-driving-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes to legal limit when drinking and driving in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has announced that the government plans to lower South Africa\u2019s drunk driving limit to zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at a media briefing alongside Deputy Minister Mkhuleko Hlengwa, Creecy outlined her department\u2019s intention to amend Section 65 of the National Road Traffic Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She highlighted that this would introduce a clear and unambiguous policy, allowing no alcohol consumption while driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presenting the 2025\/26 festive season road safety report, covering the period from 1 December 2025 to 11 January 2026, Creecy said it was time to end the longstanding allowance that permitted drivers to consume a certain amount of alcohol before getting behind the wheel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe time has come for us to amend the law, so that we have a clear-cut, easy-to-understand, and unambiguous policy that says drinking and driving are not allowed,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf nothing else, we owe this to the memory of the many fellow South Africans who have lost their lives on the roads.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creecy described the current law as \u201ctotally unacceptable,\u201d noting that existing blood-alcohol limits, set decades ago, allow regular drivers up to 0.05g per 100ml of blood and professional drivers up to 0.02g.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For breathalyser tests, these limits correspond to 0.24 mg\/L and 0.10 mg\/L, respectively. The minister said she could not explain these allowances to families who have lost loved ones in alcohol-related crashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festive season report highlighted why such a change is urgently needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While five provinces recorded reductions in road fatalities, four provinces\u2014including Gauteng, Western Cape, Mpumalanga, and Northern Cape\u2014saw increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The period between 15 and 28 December accounted for over 40% of crashes and fatalities, which Creecy said confirms a trend that accidents spike when travellers have reached their destinations and are engaged in festive celebrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drunk driving is a problem <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Transport Minister Barbara Creecy and Deputy Minister Mkhuleko Hlengwa<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The stats also show that officers conducted 1,632 roadblocks and checked 1.8 million vehicles. Over 450,000 traffic fines were issued, while 525 motorists were arrested for excessive speeding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creecy said roadblocks focused on vehicle roadworthiness, driver fitness, and licensing, and 173,695 drivers were tested for alcohol consumption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of these, 8,561 tested positive, marking a 144% increase from the same period the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the incidents were extreme. The highest recorded blood-alcohol reading was in KwaZulu-Natal, where one driver tested 14 times above the legal limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, in the Northern Cape, a motorist was caught travelling at 222 km\/h in a 120 km\/h zone. \u201cThis reinforces the urgent need for zero tolerance on alcohol and driving,\u201d Creecy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed change is not new. In 2020, former Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula introduced the National Road Traffic Amendment Bill to Parliament, which included measures to eliminate blood-alcohol limits entirely in favour of a zero-tolerance approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill also contained amendments to driving school regulations, licensing procedures, and traffic enforcement. However, despite parliamentary debate and consultations, the bill has not yet become law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A zero-tolerance alcohol policy for drivers would align South Africa with international best practices and remove confusion about what constitutes safe driving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If implemented, it would mean that all drivers would be prohibited from consuming any alcohol before getting behind the wheel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have never understood why it was acceptable to allow motorists to drink a certain amount and drive. This must end,\u201d Creecy said. She added that the lives of South Africans on the road depend on decisive action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has announced that the government plans to change South Africa\u2019s drunk driving limit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":730743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[853,24523],"class_list":["post-847979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-south-africa","tag-transport-minister-barbara-creecy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847979"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847983,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847979\/revisions\/847983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}