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Public Safety
Road safety strategy
Agenda #2August 20, 2026
Summary
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The Council will consider the City of Cape Town Road Safety Strategy.
Road safety is a major problem in Cape Town. Pedestrians make up the largest share of road deaths. Longer-term trends have consistently shown pedestrians accounting for the majority of road deaths in Cape Town. The national Department of Transport reported the highest number of pedestrian fatalities in the City of Cape Town during the 2025/26 festive season. Nationally, the Department of Transport is working toward a 50 percent reduction in accidents and fatalities by 2030. A municipal road safety strategy would normally set out how the City contributes to that goal. It would cover enforcement, engineering, education and data. I could not retrieve the strategy document itself, so its contents are not described here.
Recent figures show the scale of the problem. 168 people were killed across the Western Cape in the 2025/26 festive period, a 21% rise on the previous year. 87 of those deaths were in Cape Town. The City's latest traffic crash report, covering July to September 2026, reports on average, one road death every 11 hours and 40 minutes. The same report records 1,009,607 traffic offences in that period. Arrests rose by 80%, including 653 for drunk driving.
Enforcement and technology have shown some results. 19 people died on Western Cape roads over Easter 2026, compared with 22 the year before. Drones were used to monitor pedestrian movement and public transport areas. Even so, pedestrians and passengers remain the most vulnerable road users, accounting for the vast majority of fatalities. A formal strategy matters because it can coordinate enforcement, safer road design and public education, and it can direct budgets toward the known hotspots.
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