A TOTAL of 676 people have died on South Africa's roads since the beginning of the festive season.

The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) yesterday released weekly preliminary statistics stating that the deaths have resulted from 564 crashes.

The mortalities are from December 1 to yesterday.

RTMC spokesman Ashref Ismail did not want to confirm the province that has recorded the highest number of deaths, but according to the statistics tabled by the traffic management agency, Mpumalanga appears to have the highest number of deaths, followed by KwaZulu-Natal.

Ismail said the main causes of the accidents so far had been speeding, dangerous overtaking, drinking and driving, and pedestrians walking along busy roads while drunk.

He said the problems were greater in urban areas.

"We are now moving our focus to the metropolitan areas where the problem is very high.

"We are involving metropolitan police because that is where drinking and driving is rife," Ismail said.

According to the statistics, Gauteng has recorded thelowest number of fatalities.

The statistics also reflect that there has been 301 arrests nationally for drunken driving, 42 for excessive speed, 15 for reckless driving and 52 for overloading.

The statistics show that 261 arrests were made on public transport operators, including taxis that did not have valid public transport permits.

Twenty-seven people were arrested for not having driver's licences.