Gerald Maguranyanga Traffic Friday
The editor of The Herald must be a kind man. I guess, in any situation, a little flattery (no, not your typical partiality, wicked falsehood) is professional and good business and can be a ticklish Mozart symphony, or classic Tuku, to the hearer!
I mean, the newspaper’s supremo has kindly invited me, to gainfully connect, via this enthusiastic, fresh, weekly column, with his huge-and-wide audience; my passionate and unrestrained thoughts on road traffic accidents  and how hopefully, the whole wise lot of us may engage constructively and help stem the tide.

It may be reasonably argued that the said large audience is spread across, not only the length and breadth of Zimbabwe, but even across the whole wide world where numbers, in the several millions, are peddled.

One ambitious local mining behemoth actually preaches its safety gospel by a now popular slogan, Zero Harm; that elusive safety dream; in other words, an accident-free circumstance in all we do! That, on our roads, surely would be a little paradise before the End-Time! It’s a sobering, lofty ideal! Whether that has ever happened anywhere in this whole-wide world, I am clueless.

Well, I guess, after all, the cliché teaches, “aim for the stars, if you miss, you may get the moon!” Though not as far-fetched, I am in the same boat with these ambitious guys; the gratuitous, unrelenting RTA rate on Zimbabwean roads is profound, staggering and is expensively destructive to body, mind and soul.

In a few easy words; the RTAs have gone overboard and are utterly unacceptable and I am entitled to demand, as I hereby do; in fact the sane all-of-us, command, whomsoever, that, by hook-or-crook, this be stopped. Yesterday! In 2013, notwithstanding, the financial mayhem to sort out for Patrick (there’s only one such named person that deals with THE finance) we should all have a fantastic low accident rate festive season. The murderous rampage of 2012, 2011, 2010, Y2K and many preceding years, must stop. I demand; we command those that serve us.
Am I a traffic expert? Maybe not in the strict academic show-me-your-papers sense. My proficiencies, in fact, dwell in other endeavours that are clearly far-placed from road traffic. (Keep this little bit private; at 40, starting out at 18, I am a driver of 22 long years experience — CVR records testify). Add a little good fortune of blessed circumstances to my driving CV; I have wide experiences of years of overseas driving too, and copious, careful reading; so I may just be entitled to rant and rave.

The safe driving life experiences are much. Much too much. The travel and long-distance driving, in all manner of weather, across the state lines, has unerringly taught me a great deal, which no classroom could ever teach.

See, my motivation to share my thoughts with you in this space are driven by a simple want. I know you share that too! To one day see Zimbabweans (and Africans) assume; soberly, the huge life-and-death responsibilities the moment a certified driver goes behind the wheel and puts into motion their chariot-of-fire. Yes, I have a dream too, just like the Zero Harm guys!

The gruesome, national disaster examples in Zimbabwe are many and they remain etched in the mind; the Dande River Bridge 57, Chivake, the Nyanga 91 (one of the all-time-worst bus accidents in the world!) and the hellish, fiery ones like Chisumbanje. The gory list is long.
And then maybe, much closer to home, we all have personal ones that are much smaller in comparison to the “big ones”, but whose effect nevertheless is unforgettable pain. For me one Francis Madziva pains me. Privileged to intimately work with such a workaholic, in-your-face, box-to-box midfielder at a top local football team, I just fell in love with the guy. His promising professional footie career was cruelly cut short, at only 25. Research says most athletes hit their unstoppable prime at 28. Madziva was potentially Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton material. What a joy he was to watch, flying along his favoured left flank and bringing delirium to millions of football fans.
Ten years ago, some buffoon tractor driver, near Kadoma, wandered onto the road on his completely unlit, muddied farm tractor-and-trailer and collided with Madziva’s team bus. Madziva’s cultured left foot was severely injured; several surgeries later, it lost its sting and that was it for him. One other person pointlessly lost their irreplaceable life in that accident.

Then there’s pretty Rosa (the inspiration for my Road Safety Africa — RoSA, the interactive Facebook page); my smart, pretty 12-year-old niece that needlessly lost her fledgling life at, of all places, a well-marked city pedestrian crossing. An excitable mobile phone-peddling young man ploughed into her, breaking all her major bones and severely fracturing her tender cranium. Brave Rosa soldiered on in ICU for days, but succumbed to her dreadful injuries a week on.

The regulation breaches on the road are many. Much-too-many! As illuminated in a recent posting  . . . the unrestrained child playfully STANDING on the front seat of a moving vehicle (you are kidding me!); the common haulage truck dangerously ejecting a loose brick every 500m of road; the totally-unlit vehicle at night/in driving rain, the overtaking-lane hog, the routine drink-driving driver, the texting distracted driver, utter disregard for the mandatory safety belt and the one that takes the cup, the distracted, drive-as-you-phone habit perpetrated by virtually all of us.

Then there’s the unbeatable combined cocktail of serious infractions perpetrated by virtually every commuter omnibus driver; holding inadequate vehicle and driver licences, excess passenger and baggage overloading, gross over-speeding, the widespread use of poorly-treaded tyres etc.

So whose tantrum-full baby is it anyway, to stem-the-tide? The regulatory authorities are several and I pinpoint the Ministry of Transport led by the new-broom, Obert Mpofu, for whom the jury is out. Augustine Chihuri’s Zimbabwe Republic Police (Traffic Section) being probably the key authorities on whose combined broad shoulders curtailing the carnage is on.

Then there’s a whole plethora of departments, administrations, all these; your CMED, VED (VID?), ZTSB, Department of Roads, Zinara, etc. We will respectfully engage and humbly put-across our few pertinent questions and thoughts. Well, in some cases, because, we are the people; I will demand, we will command.

Then again, cities such as Harare and Bulawayo have grown exponentially at least in road traffic number terms. Harare has actually, in quick-time exploded its road traffic creating utter pandemonium. But sadly, there has not been a match in requisite policing. The cat-and-mouse, child’s-play, running battles between the ill-equipped, baton-wielding police officer and obstinate commuter omnibus driver are just that and cannot and will not bring any semblance of order to our city roads.

I thought any modern city policed its precinct with just a little help from national police. Your famous NYPD, your JMPD (Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department), etc, are all city operations that bring road traffic sanity to their jurisdictions. I fancy a fully-in-charge HMPD (Harare Metropolitan Police Department) that may one day rival the famed NYPD in fame!

The endeavour of Traffic Friday is simple; to inform, educate, interact and pass on our individual messages to the authorities of the-roads-that-we-want; well-maintained, safe and a pleasure to drive on. Ultimately, private citizen you-and-me, are the influential public responsible for making this whole safety thing work, the individuals that daily propel the many thousands of diverse vehicles in the small-and-large categories.

Wielding immense responsibility, we hold the keys to this hallowed Zero Harm. You and I, we steer the vehicle, either away from each other, into the ditch or into each other. We accountably drive sober or perilously stone-pissed.

We hold the master keys. Safety calls unto this literate generation; it demands we individually up-our-game as we patiently negotiate the ever-busy byways and highways.

It’s a Friday; keep the driving, this weekend, and for all times, safe and joyous!

Gerald Maguranyanga moderates RoSA (Road Safety Africa), an interactive Facebook page that solicits ideas to curb road traffic accidents in Zimbabwe and Africa.

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