Why South Africans can’t drive

It is estimated that 50% of driving licences in South Africa are obtained fraudulently, meaning one in every two drivers in the country has not passed a driving test.

Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, Masterdrive CEO Eugene Herbert said corruption within Driving Licence Testing Centres could significantly contribute to the carnage on South Africa’s roads.

“I can’t quote the veracity of it now, but it was estimated that about 50% of driver’s licences had been obtained fraudulently, which means that every second driver you encounter on the road is statistically not licensed,” he said.

Herbert highlighted several factors contributing to the issue. He explained that obtaining a legitimate licence can be costly due to potential failures during testing.

“It costs them a lot of money because they fail, so they land up with a bill of R4,000, R5,000, maybe even more,” he said.

“Then they look at it and say: hold on. I know somebody who, if I pay R2,000, will get my licence immediately.”

“That licence, whilst not illegal, is still being issued fraudulently,” he added.

Herbert explained that even when drivers go through the K53 system, the testing procedure is limited.

He said most tests are conducted in suburban areas and do not include crucial aspects of driving, such as doing so at night or on high-speed freeways.

“As a result of that, they learn very little about the skill of driving on the road, and that accounts for many of the accidents, I believe,” said Herbert.

He also said there are frequent instances where an individual is licensed to drive but demonstrably cannot drive.

He explained that this disconnect results from the ease of obtaining certain licence categories, such as Code 10 or Category C.

These licence categories are exempt from some of the more rigorous assessments.

“The code 10. It’s easier to obtain, and there’s new terminology: category C. They can get a licence more easily,” said Herbert.

“They don’t have to do all the normal things you and I trust would have been done in order to qualify for a licence, and they are sharing the roads with us in shopping centres, et cetera, where many incidents occur.”

The world’s most dangerous country to drive in

In late March 2025, Zutobi’s World’s Safest and Most Dangerous Roads report ranked South Africa as the world’s most dangerous country to drive in for the second consecutive year.

The company highlighted low seatbelt use as a significant contributor to road fatalities in South Africa, adding that there are an estimated 24.5 road fatalities per 100,000 people in the country.

It noted that South Africa’s speed limit of 120km/h isn’t much higher than Norway’s, the safest country to drive, with a freeway speed limit of 110km/h.

“However, just 31% of front seat passengers in South Africa are estimated to wear a seatbelt, while in Norway the figure is 97.8%,” Zutobi said.

Lucky Molaudzi, the general manager for Road Safety Partnership in South Africa, said the country has roughly 12,000 deaths on its roads each year.

“We are at risk. Actually, we’re in trouble. We’ve got an average of about 12,000 people dying on the roads every year, and in last year’s festive season, we lost about 1,000 people,” he said.

“There’s a lot of challenges ahead of us.”

However, while he highlighted drunken and reckless driving as significant contributors, Driving.co.za managing director Rob Handfield-Jones says the central issue is South Africans buying their licences.

He noted that road fatalities had surged since 1998, and he largely attributes the increase to corruption in licencing departments, which enabled South Africans to get licences when they lacked fundamental driving competence.

“That traces back to the 1996 evisceration of the Instructor’s Test and the implementation of the centralised licence booking system shortly afterwards,” said Handfield-Jones.

“No other factors can explain the abrupt doubling of fatality rates from 1998 to 2006 after they had declined in a straight line from 1985 onwards.”