MDC-T mourns victims of Kwekwe bus disaster

The MDC would like to extend its deepest and heartfelt condolences to the families of the 31 people who tragically lost their lives on Thursday, March 3, 2016, in a road traffic accident involving a bus and a commuter omnibus near Kwekwe along the Harare-Bulawayo highway. This was yet another tragic accident that took place along our highways which, unfortunately, have become death traps. We call upon all road users, particularly drivers of public transport vehicles, to pay particular attention to our driving rules and regulations. Drivers should obey traffic safety regulations and they should also avoid over-speeding and/or driving under the influence of alcohol or some other such intoxicating drugs. In the same breath, owners of public transport vehicles as well as private motorists, should always ensure that their vehicles are kept in a sound mechanical and roadworthy condition.

The poor state of most of our public roads is also another major cause of accidents; leading to unnecessary and painful loss of lives. The MDC would like to call upon the Zimbabwe National Road Authority (ZINARA), to ensure that all the country's major roads and highways are maintained well and kept in a good condition all the time. Unfortunately, most, if not all roads, in Zimbabwe's growth points, towns and cities are in a deplorable state. Potholes have become the order of the day and it is becoming extremely hazardous to travel on the country's pot-holed and dilapidated roads. We wonder what all the money that is being collected at the country's numerous tollgates is being used for. Instead of purchasing luxury vehicles and paying unsustainably huge salaries to the top management of ZINARA, the money that is being collected from tollgates should be channelled back into maintaining and repairing the country's collapsing road infrastructure. It is a notorious fact that most Zimbabwean public roads were last maintained before the country became independent in April, 1980. For example, the country's busiest highway, the Beitbridge-Chirundu highway, is in a state of near collapse.

The Zanu PF government should pay more attention to developing a sustainable and reliable national road maintenance policy. It is disheartening to note that only 88 000 km of our public roads is tarred. In many rural areas such as Beitbridge, Tsholotsho, Mwenezi, Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe, Binga, Mola, Rushinga, Hurungwe, Chiredzi, Gokwe and Mberengwa, most public roads are virtually unpassable, especially during the rainy season. The government should seriously explore private public partnerships (PPPs) in order to construct and rehabilitate the country's collapsed public road network. PPPs can be a major solution in reviving our road infrastructure as can be seen with the Group 5 project that has constructed the 800km Plumtree-Mutare highway. The Zanu PF government is bankrupt and everyone knows that on its own, government will never be able to resuscitate the country's dilapidated public roads.

As we mourn the tragic loss of 31 lives in the Kwekwe bus disaster, we should never lose sight of the fact that it is the responsibility of all road users, including pedestrians, to always maintain vigilance and alertness whilst traveling and/or walking on the road. We trust that the law enforcement agents will continue to play the much needed role of maintaining sanity on Zimbabwe's roads. All those people who flagrantly violate road rules and regulations should be severely punished in order to minimise and eventually eliminate the scourge of road accident that are caused by human negligence coupled with the use of unroadworthy motor vehicles. Human life is priceless.