The City of Cape Town’s traffic services said Monday that incidents of drunken driving have increased since the ban on the sale of alcohol last week Monday.
Since the sale of alcohol was allowed with the setting of level 3 isolation, five people have been arrested for drunken driving in the Western Cape.
These five drivers were among the 20 people arrested by the City’s traffic services for various offenses on the road. The traffic services also seized two vehicles and imposed a total of 21 424 fines for various traffic violations.
Law enforcement officers have arrested ten people for possession of drugs, public violence and possession of stolen property in the first week of May, since the introduction of Level 4 of seclusion.
JP Smith, Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety and security, said when the buying and selling of alcohol was prohibited at the level 5 and 4 of seclusion, a total of three people were arrested for drunken driving. Last year, there were 575 drunken driving arrests. This is a 99% decrease.
“Now that alcohol is more freely available, the number of drunk driving incidents is also starting to increase. It’s frustrating, but not surprising, ”says Smith.
