The Sunday News
Mhlupheki Dube
WHEN driving along most of the national highways, it is common to come across livestock grazing on the edges of the road and this obviously may lead to traffic accidents.
The reason why we are beginning to have a lot of livestock grazing along our national highways is because of the early emerging green grass as a result of light showers that have been received in some parts of the country.
The tarmac collects all the few drops that fall on it, aggregates it and spill it along the edges of the road.
This part of the road becomes much wetter than other parts which are further from the road and hence the early growth of the green grass.
The aim of this instalment is, however, not to explain the ecology of the roadside veld but to appeal to our drivers to have this in mind when travelling.
Drivers must always be alert as some of the animals occasionally stray onto the tarmac.
While we get furious why the animals are on our roads in the first place and why their owners are not penning them, it is still important to note that the responsibility to avoid an accident solely and entirely lies with the driver of the vehicle.
A few days ago I was travelling from Lupane to Bulawayo and the road is one of those which has suddenly seen a surge in the number of cattle grazing on the edges of the tarmac.
The driver of a vehicle came charging towards the herd of cattle on the edge of the road and there was one particular animal standing right on the edge and showing all signs of the intention to jaywalk onto the road and at the same time there was a bus coming from the opposite direction which meant there was no chance to swerve to the other lane.
I had to instruct the driver to exercise caution. The cow was simply going to walk onto the road resulting in an accident.
My aim here is to illustrate that in a majority of cases drivers are very negligent when approaching a potentially hazardous situation (to use the language of traffic police) and in some cases they are speeding through the night and their vehicles have poor lights.
Drivers must therefore exercise caution and not blame livestock farmers when they are involved in accidents involving livestock.
Between you and the animal, you are the one who was given the dominion over everything by the creator, in other words you are in charge, so please help us to save lives and property.
This is by no means absolving farmers of their responsibility to take their animals off our roads, in fact this pen also pleads with local authorities who have highways traversing their districts to consider either budgeting for fences or to use their levy collections from the cattle auctions to fence off the roads.
I am fully aware that most of the roads belong to the State but local authorities can do well to protect property and investment of community members within their jurisdiction.
A few kilometres of the road fenced off every year can go a long way in protecting lives and property. Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.
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