Cape Town: The Traffic Services of the City of Cape Town has recorded 49% increase in motor vehicles, caught on camera while illegally crossing the red light, in the last financial year 2024-25.
Alderman JP Smith, MMC for Safety and Security said that the road safety begins when road users decide to obey the rules and follow them diligently. Many cases of speeding up vehicles and then losing control over them were seen earlier.
The accidents recorded also seen an overloaded vehicle and not wearing seatbelts has put drivers’ life at risk. Smith said that ignoring a red light is not good, this increases chance of collision with vehicle or hitting a pedestrian. Also, jaywalking or walking on wrong side can put pedestrians in harm.
Despite of knowing about these risks, thousands of incidents happen on roads every month. The annual traffic statistics continues to increase towards crime.
The Traffic Services have recorded over 2.7 million offences between the months of July 2024 and June 2025. This whole year, saw cases of speeding, jumping red lights, driving offences and overloading.
SAPS (South Africa Police Service) officers have also apprehended who were involved in drunk driving, reckless and negligent driving and for various other transgressions which includes murder, theft of goods, false information and robbery.
Alderman JP Smith further stated that the traffic enforcement is a highly contentious and emotive issue in the city. He quoted, the biggest critics are often the biggest culprits, when it comes to breaking traffic rules.
Neverending argument about soft targets is old and disrespectful to anyone who has experienced the tragedy. The fact is that too many people are comfortable with breaking laws, until they are held accountable for their actions which caused harm to them and others.
JP Smith said that the traffic enforcement service officers are doing their work with honesty, but they have limited resources and have to deal with the consequences due to lack of personal accountability.