More than 10,000 people have lost their lives on South African roads during the festive season in the past six years, according to figures from the Road Traffic Management Corporation. 

According to the RTMC, there is a 30-day waiting period between the provisional and final death toll number presented to the media. This is to account for those who succumb to their injuries after the release of the provisional results.

Minister of transport Blade Nzimande released the preliminary Festive Season Road Safety report which recorded 1,612 road fatalities from December 1 to January 8 of 2018/2019.

"The figures that were released are provisional figures which are the ones published by the media but the final ones [every year] are in the RTMC reports" said RTMC spokesperson Simon Zwane. 

The past festive season's death toll is a rise from last year's provisional 1,527 despite the department's goal to reduce festive road fatalities by 10%. The final number for last year  however was 1,770.

According to the RTMC annual festive season reports, the 2016/2017 festive road fatalities were the highest in the past five years with 2,006 recorded fatalities during that festive season.