Road deaths during the Christmas holidays were at 1 162 by the end of December, the Department of Transport said on Monday.
Spokesperson Colen Msibi said the number was marginally down from 1 234 reported in the same period last year.
Most of the deaths were in KwaZulu-Natal, which had reported 228 fatalities during the holidays.
A total of 192 people had died on Gauteng’s roads.
The Eastern Cape saw 144 deaths, Mpumalanga 123, the Western Cape 120, Limpopo 114, the North West 105, the Free State 100 and the Northern Cape 36.
A total of 499 pedestrians were killed during the holidays.
There was heavy traffic on the country’s main routes on Monday as holidaymakers returned home, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported.
About 1 500 cars an hour were recorded passing at the Kranskop tollgate on the N1 south in Limpopo.
More than 3 000 cars an hour were passing Pietermaritzburg on the N3 north for most of the day.
Jo’burg pile-up
Meanwhile, four people were injured in an 11-car pile-up on the M1 north near Houghton in Johannesburg on Monday night, metropolitan police said.
Spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said the accident happened at about 8pm when the driver of a green BMW lost control of the vehicle near the Houghton offramp.
Minnaar said it had been raining and the roads were slippery.
Two people in a car that crashed into the BMW were injured. Another two from a separate car were also injured. They were taken to the Johannesburg General hospital for treatment.
Two lanes of the highway were closed for about 45 minutes, causing a large traffic jam.
Car lands in Vaal River
Gauteng police have recovered the bodies of five people who drowned after the driver of a car accidentally plunged the vehicle into the Vaal River near Vanderbijlpark, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Police Superintendent Eugene Opperman, of the province’s water wing and diving unit, said the accident took place on Monday evening.
A specially trained rescue dog, Fargo, on Tuesday pointed divers to where the fifth victim’s body was and police officers recovered the man’s remains. The bodies of the four other passengers, all women, were recovered earlier.
Vaal Rand police spokesperson Captain William Mcera said on Monday night that the five — a husband and wife, and their three friends — were members of the Old Apostolic Church in Everton.
They had spent the day on the banks of the river, which is near the Emfuleni resort.
On their way home, the driver of the Toyota Cressida took a wrong turn and drove into the river. The five were unable to free themselves and drowned.
Opperman said Gauteng has had 16 drownings since the beginning of the festive season, but the number is far less than what the province had last year.
”Last year, we had 48 drownings by the end of the festive season. We think the number has dropped due to the intensive public-awareness campaigns we had.” — Sapa