23 Oct 2017

Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (MVAF) is committed to safe lives of all road users hence its interaction with the public to share massages concerning the alarming rate of road accidents in the country.

Speaking at the MVAF annual activity, Palapye branch manager, John Bunga said this year they sponsored Palapye village teams with P6 600 and a floating trophy which would be shared by 10 participating teams.

He said the Palapye 5 aside road safety football tournament would allow all 10 teams to take part.

The first prize is P2 000 and a floating trophy, second prize P1 000, third prize P700 while the remaining six would each get P400 as consolation prize.

Bunga said the intention of the tournament was to share and spread the road safety massage to the youth who were the most affected people.

He urged them to take the message seriously and informed them that the friendly games would help them to interact and come up with ideas that could drive them away from indulgence in drugs and drinking and driving.

He said MVAF could also be termed as Automatic Insurance Assistance Funds (AIAF) as it stood with everyone who was grieving because of a road accident.

It also helps to cover the funeral expenses and medical expenses whereby a person was injured, and also assist in case of loss of support and employment.

He called upon drivers to be alert and take precaution as they shared the road with other users to avoid unnecessary accidents.

He attributed most road accidents to driver negligence and careless driving.

For his part, Inspector Ntshesane Rammapusi of Botswana Police Service shared with participants the recent numbers of road accidents that occurred in Palapye, adding that most of the drivers were youth.

He said 14 accidents in Palapye claimed 21 lives as compared to this year where 18 died among them children aged between 0-10 years, who were knocked down by motorists.

He said contributory factors included wearing dark colours at night, drunk and driving and driving without driver’s licenses. 

He warned drivers that someone could lose his/her license if caught under the influence of alcohol.

The tournament started on a point system and teams were divided into A and B.

Khumela emerged champions and went away with P2 000 and a trophy followed by Makgabana with P1 000.

Third position went to Top Start with P700 and Bobirwa Young Starts got P500 while other teams got P400 each. ENDS