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GRAVE DANGER . . . A one-tonne truck is legally mandated to ferry nothing more than one tonne as its legal payload. This particular truck was carrying at least 40 passengers in clear violation of the law

Gerald Mugaranyanga Traffic Friday
Many years ago, I used to marvel at a mammoth city billboard depicting a rugged-looking pick-up truck with the payoff  “The car that built Africa”.I do not quite recall whether the truck brand was Land Rover or Toyota, but whichever both the Land Rover and Toyota can stand tall and proud, shoulder to shoulder as the top two rightful contenders for “the truck that built Africa”.

It’s true, the humble pick-up (called bakkie in South Africa), has put in zillions of hours across the continent constructing it to what it is today.

Anyone though could also argue, with great irony, that the same excellent pick-up has also always played a starring role in the de-construction of Africa.

Toyota trucks, because of their unquestionable ruggedness, are seemingly the truck of choice for rebel movements, as we see on telly news from time to time, with all manner of heavy-duty artillery affixed to the back of the truck and zooming by at high speed!

The pick-up truck then spectacularly conforms to the good, the bad and the ugly!

Jack Mulcaire, a top war correspondent, writing this year: “Readers, let’s take a moment to salute a true workhorse. In the world of war machines, the expensive and high-tech items get all the attention and budget – the drones, anti-ship ballistic missiles, cyber warfare, etc.

“But, on the battlefields of the 21st century, a humble and under-rated weapon has quietly showed up; the pick-up truck!”
He adds that, today, irregular, infantry-centric forces rely on the pick-up truck as their mainstay.

In Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Mali, etc, irregulars reach the battlefield more often than not in the beds of Toyota Hi-Luxes, Ford Rangers, etc. The pick-up is ideal for the wars of the 21st century: readily available, cheap, fuel efficient, easy to operate and repair and can operate off-road in the bush or in the downtown of a major metropolis.

All of these characteristics make the pick-up truck a war winner. The “technical” (light truck mounted with weapons) is born!
Inasmuch as the pick-up truck delivers much useful commercial work around the world; in Zimbabwe, the pick-up truck executes much more than the everyday flipping of small cargo from A-to-B.

It has a whole life and importance in our poor communities. Yes, it will ferry produce and perform plentiful other chores … but the pick-up is also, most vitally, a people mover! See, in Africa, we always make a plan, dexterously converting a goods vehicle into a bus of sorts!

Tino kiya-kiya! That, as we happily ride in the pan, we will suck in wind, get sun-blasted silly, endure dust, etc, is not a biggie.
We just want to get to B. Comfort is off the agenda. We have more important existential bread-and-butter issues to worry about. That is our Africa; the peculiar place we love and call home!

However, the illegitimate conversion of the pick-up as the prime means of people movement has caused untold grief to many families.
Ferrying passengers in the back of the truck; the load pan, often proves to be a deadly pursuit. Numerous heart-rending examples abound: A Mutare family of closely related persons was nearly wiped out; 15 killed, near Selous, when their pick-up truck overturned after the driver lost control.

Three people sat in the cab in front, 18 at the back. Six lucky ones survived, but each with massive injuries to nurse, for the rest of their lives.

In 2013, 15 church members (all Zimbabwean) of the Johanne Masowe weChishanu branch, in Johannesburg, perished after their Mitsubishi Colt pick-up collided head-on with a bus in Rustenburg. The pick-up truck had 18 souls on board.

Each time the police have condemned the practice of ferrying passengers in the back, which back was never meant to sit anyone, even for one second! (Ironically the police use the pick-up truck to ferry its members daily around Zimbabwe!). In Zimbabwe, the law (read Road Motor Transportation Act) strongly frowns upon carrying people in the load pan.

In spite of the grave dangers, how practical is it though to completely demand that no one ever rides in the load pan? In Zimbabwe, in Africa?

Because I am an African who, out of pressing necessity, has had to ride in that back, I can begrudgingly accept the need for people to ride in the pan, out of imperative want.

What I am completely against is the packing of hordes of people in the load pan. In the accompanying picture, in the leafy suburb of Gunhill, where I took the photo, I swear, I counted not less than 40 breathing real human beings in that 1-tonne pick up!

To expose the graphic nature of the huge potential danger, I will do some simple sums for you, dear reader. An average male adult, conservatively, tips the scales at 75kg. Multiply 40 and 75, and you get a hefty 3 000kg! In a one-tonner! Now that is serious criminality with murderous tendencies on the part of the driver! That, I could never ever turn a convenient blind eye to!

A one-tonner truck is legally mandated to ferry nothing more than one tonne as its legal payload. Anything more than that, and you severely compromise the steer-ability of the vehicle. Also, because of the exponential increase in weight, the tyres begin to work way over their design limit and could overheat. Fast!

The same negative effect goes for the brake system. In the event of something going wrong, because of the huge numbers of unsecured, exposed persons in one place, easily, dozens of people could be killed in one fell swoop. And then you are going to have all sorts of crazy reasons advanced as to what caused the so-called accident. It’s the driver, stupid!

Traffic Friday suggests that in the interest of balancing safety and convenience for the majority, relevant experts may be mandated to recommend maximum numbers for each load pan to carry. This is Africa, you can never stop people movement from the pick-up bed.

Let’s just ensure its safety! I suggest not more than seven passengers in any pick-up truck for a Class 4 driver. You may only exceed that number; up to, say 10, if you held a valid Class 2 licence.

That number would also ensure that the weight of the small truck stayed under its safe capacity. We will attempt to explore in detail, next time, the specifics of the Road Motor Transportation Act, which spells out the legal issues on the use of a pick-up truck and the illegal ferrying of passengers, vis-a-vis vital matters of passenger insurance, route authority, certificate of fitness, etc.

It’s a Friday; please keep the driving ‘happy, happy!’

 Gerald Maguranyanga moderates Road Safety Africa, on www.facebook.com/RoadSafetyAfrica, an interactive community page that solicits ideas to curb road traffic accidents in Zimbabwe and Africa. Feedback: WhatsApp only: +263 772 205 300; email: [email protected]