The Sunday News
IN my line of work I drive frequently around the provinces of Matabeleland as well as Midlands.
One common and disturbing feature on our highways is the prevalence of stray livestock and road accidents caused by the same.
One such treacherous road is the Bulawayo-Plumtree highway especially the stretch between Marula and Plumtree Town.
The road is itself a speed temptation to many drivers because it was resurfaced a few months ago.
One hardly drives on that road without witnessing an accident and in most cases its causes are linked to livestock especially at night.
While the police will attend to the scene and quickly dismiss the driver if he/she is lucky to be alive with an admission of guilty form, charged with “driving without due care and attention”, this pen thinks more needs to be done to avoid unnecessary and mostly avoidable loss of property and lives due to stray livestock on our highways.
I am certainly convinced that if those responsible for letting their animals stroll and patrol our highways can be tracked down and charged under relevant Acts, we can begin to see livestock farmers being more responsible.
These farmers should be and can be traced to their homesteads if their animals are found along highways.
Authorities must not wait until an accident occurs to charge the farmers.
Usually these animals that are a menace to road users belong to newly (I doubt if this term is still applicable as others have been there for more than 10 years) resettled farmers near highways.
If the police could drive to settlements near the accident scene they could identify the owner of the animals.
I will not buy the argument that police do not have the resources, human or otherwise to do that.
If we can deploy a strong contingent of about eight officers at road blocks some of them less than two kilometres apart, we definitely can assign some to hunt down these irresponsible farmers and bring them to book.
For example we can broaden the mandate of the anti-stock theft unit in our police force to deal with this issue. This can be another very valid reason why farmers should be encouraged if not compelled to have brand marks for their cattle. Branded cattle can easily be traced to the owner, and the owner charged accordingly.
Police cannot be the only institution tasked with reining in these reckless farmers who let their animals cause accidents along highways. The district administrator’s office as well as the local authority should be able to come in and help address this problem.
The district administrator’s office, for example works directly with the traditional leaders on the ground, is it not possible to use these structures for policing our roads in terms of stray livestock? These can be empowered to fine whoever let his/her livestock stray onto the roads.
The local authority has councillors on the ground, admittedly these are sometimes very far from the roads, but are there no structures that councillors can use to try and deal with this problem?
I honestly think that a solution can be found if the responsible leadership apply their minds to it. We cannot just be content to collate statistics of fatalities and injuries for the purpose of putting them into colourful graphs in our monthly reports, life should be more valuable than a statistical presentation!
Feedback [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> cell 0772851275
