The Automobile Association (AA) says the transport
department’s 2021 Easter road safety statistics do not add up.
Earlier this week Minister Fikile Mbalula announced that 235
people were killed on the country’s roads during the Easter break.
Mbalula said this is a 9.6% decline from 2019.
However, the association said the figure of just over 260
deaths over the Easter period in 2019 was not stated in official government
documents, bringing this into question.
The AA’s Layton Beard said, “The concern by the AA with the
statistics released by the minister of transport is that they do not reconcile
with the figures from previous years, making meaningful commentary impossible.
Reliable statistics are important because they inform future plans and
initiatives, but unfortunately, we cannot rely on these numbers.”
