As South Africa prepares for the Easter travel period – historically one of the country’s highest-risk road safety windows – the focus once again turns to enforcement, driver behaviour and alcohol-related interventions.
These are necessary. But they are not sufficient.
In January, the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI), representing more than 8 500 accredited businesses across eight specialist associations and the largest employer body in the country’s automotive aftermarket, addressed the Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition, highlighting a structural blind spot in South Africa’s road safety strategy: vehicle condition.
The automotive retail and aftermarket sector contributes more than 54% of total automotive value-add and accounts for approximately 70% of employment in the value chain.
Yet despite its economic weight and safety influence, the aftermarket remains under-integrated into national road safety policy frameworks. That omission has consequences.
The economic cost of road crashes
Road crashes cost South Africa an estimated R205 billion annually – a figure that represents lost productivity, healthcare burdens, insurance impacts, infrastructure damage and long-term socio-economic strain.
During the 2025/26 festive season alone, 1 427 lives were lost in just over a month. While a five percent reduction in fatalities was welcomed, the absolute numbers remain alarming.
“What is often missing from the national conversation is a fundamental question: How many of these vehicles were mechanically fit for the road?” says Ipeleng Mabusela, CEO of the RMI.
South Africa’s national vehicle parc now averages 10.8 years.
Vehicles are remaining in operation longer, often beyond optimal maintenance cycles. At the same time, smaller passenger vehicles, which account for approximately 55% of festive season crashes, are not subject to mandatory periodic roadworthiness testing. “This creates a structural vulnerability,” says Mabusela.
A vehicle-first approach
RMI has consistently argued that road safety policy must adopt a vehicle-first lens alongside behavioural interventions.
“The largest segment of the vehicle parc poses the highest exposure risk, yet it remains the least regulated in terms of ongoing fitness verification,” he notes.
Mechanical failures linked to worn tyres, compromised braking systems, suspension defects or lighting failures may not be the primary recorded cause of a crash – but they significantly influence severity, survivability and loss outcomes.
Periodic Vehicle Testing (PVT), widely adopted internationally, provides an objective preventative safeguard. Mabusela says it is not about punitive regulation. It is about structured risk reduction.
As Easter traffic volumes increase, particularly along long-haul freight and interprovincial passenger routes, the condition of vehicles on shared road infrastructure becomes a collective safety issue.
The aftermarket as a safety partner
This is where the RMI, with members operating in every province, across metropolitan, township and rural economies, collectively forms the operational compliance and service backbone of national mobility.
Approximately 80% of businesses in the aftermarket are SMEs.
They are labour-intensive, community-embedded and critical to keeping South Africa’s ageing vehicle fleet operational.
Mabusela says RMI members operate under a binding Code of Conduct, structured oversight and defined compliance standards.
“If South Africa is serious about sustained reductions in road fatalities – not just seasonal improvements – vehicle condition must move from peripheral concern to central policy pillar,” says Mabusela.
As April holiday travel approaches, the RMI will work collaboratively with the Department of Transport. Enforcement visibility will increase. Roadblocks will be set up. Awareness campaigns will intensify.
“But true prevention begins long before a vehicle enters a high-traffic corridor. It begins in compliant workshops; in accredited testing centres; in structured maintenance programmes and in skilled hands.” This is where the RMI is increasingly being positioned as a “Sign You Can Trust”.
For motorists, it indicates accountability.
For fleet operators, it signals reduced operational risk.
For policymakers, it represents an organised partner capable of aligning safety, skills development and economic resilience within a sector responsible for more than half of the automotive value-add in South Africa.
Click here to learn more about the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI).
