While it is illegal in SA to use a cellphone while driving, there is no law that prohibits the use of smartwatches. This is a gadget category analysts believe is set to grow in the country, especially now that Apple has entered the scene.
This could present a significant problem on the roads, if recent findings by the UK's Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) are anything to go by.
According to The Huffington Post, the organisation has found - after undertaking a number of different simulated driving tests - that a driver reading a text on a smartwatch takes an average of 2.52 seconds to react to an unforeseen road event. A driver using a cellphone, on the other hand, will take an average of 1.85 seconds to react, according to TRL.
For that reason, reports the news site, a car safety firm (SmartWitness) is calling for the country's transport department to ban the use of smartwatches by drivers. "We don't want to sound like kill-joys and the health and safety police but there's no doubt that using smartwatches while driving will cause serious accidents."
Safety spotlight
In August last year, SA's operators said they would back initiatives undertaken to stamp out the dangerous behaviour of using cellphones while driving - a campaign around which Discovery Insure has also tailored technology solutions.
In December, just before the holiday season peak, Vodacom launched its campaign dubbed "W8_2send" (wait to send) - the operator's attempt at encouraging South Africans to pledge never to text while driving.
"Texting and driving can keep a driver's eyes off the road for as much as five seconds at a time. At 120km per hour, a car would travel a distance equivalent to more than one-and-a-half football pitches during that five seconds of inattention, making texting and driving extremely dangerous," says Vodacom.
MTN has also taken steps to highlight the dangers of cellphone use on the roads - texting and driving specifically - with giant billboards placed along busy stretches that read: "Texting and driving is for idiots. Don't text and drive (unless you are an idiot)."
With more mobile phones than there are people in the country, SA has one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world. It also has one of the highest road accident rates in the world, a reality Discovery Insure attributes to poor driver behaviour and careless driving.
In 2013, texting and driving surpassed drunk driving as the number one cause of death among teenagers behind the wheel in the US. At the time, research showed that roughly 3 000 teenagers were killed and 300 000 injured in accidents caused by texting and driving each year.
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