13 Jul 2014

Ministry of Transport and Communications is concerned about road accidents involving public transport, hence a decision to conduct an analysis to profile public transport drivers as a way of trying to find the causes of such accidents.

Responding to a question from the Member of Parliament for Shoshong, Mr Phillip Makgalemele, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Nonofo Molefhi said that during the first six months of this year, nine accidents that involved public transport were recorded, with eight deaths, 19 fatal injuries while 61 were minor.

He said during the analysis, they found out that the youngest driver was 27 years while the oldest was 62. The analysis also revealed that various elements contributed to accidents such as carelessness by drivers, fatigue, speeding and animals that roamed the roads.

Mr Molefhi said as a measure to address the problem, his ministry had suspended 26 PDRDP licenses while 31 were withdrawn. He said they also withdrew 19 road permits even though 13 of them were restored after the operators appealed their cases.

Minister Molefhi noted that other measures taken to monitor the transporters included mounting of roadblocks by the Department of Road and Transport Safety, and they had already discovered that some operators used temporary drivers who were not registered.

Meetings had been held with Botswana Bus Operators Association to address such problems, and plans were ongoing to implement the point system whereby points would be deducted from the drivers who committed traffic offences, until the license became null.

He said because they had noted that public transport owners often went to the extent of stalling new gearboxes that enabled the buses to speed, they wereplanning to install a monitoring device in all public transport to monitor them at all times.

Commenting, the MP for Kanye North, Mr Kentse Rammidi enquired on whether there were stipulated hours a driver should work, as well as how often public transport vehicles were required to undergo road worthiness tests.

However, Mr Molefhi said there were no stipulated hours for drivers, and that road worthiness tests were done twice a year. He however said their efforts were thwarted by employees who connived with the owners of public transport vehicles to issue false road worthiness certificates. 

Currently, he added that 26 employees were on suspension pending investigations. For his part, MP for Chobe, Mr Gibson Nshimwe opined that road accidents as a result of livestock are mostly exacerbated by unfenced road, but Mr Molefhi said even when the roads are fenced, livestock still venture into the road because public members cut fence and steal the gates.

He said kgotla meetings had been held to sensitise the public about the fines attracted by such activities. He said they would in future build kraals to collect livestock found roaming the roads and auction them after two weeks if owners fail to claim them.

Mr Makgalemele had asked the minister if he was aware of high road accidents, especially those involving public transporters, and what measures he has put in place to address the situation. ENDS