29 May 2018

The Mayor of Gaborone, Mr Kagiso Thutlwe says it is the responsibility of the city council to build user friendly roads.

Speaking at the just-ended 360 Road Safety expo in Gaborone, Mayor Thutlwe said it was important for responsibility to be shared between road users and those who design the roads in order to have safe roads.

“As the city council we should show commitment that we are going to build roads that are user friendly not those that will put the users’ lives at risk,” he said.

Mr Thutlwe said Botswana was fully committed to the global plan for a decade of action plan on road safety from 2011 to 2020.

“Public Private Partnership of this nature will ensure that Botswana attains a decade of action plan of reducing road accidents and serious injuries by 50 per cent by the year 2020, which is just two years from now,” he said.

The mayor said the commitment came as response to the rising levels in motor road accidents.

He commended design surgery for organising 360 Road safety expo, saying they should spread to the rest of Botswana and not just limit their expo to Gaborone.

For his part, Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) chairperson, Mr Solly Reikeletseng said government had done well in the area of education as there was road safety education inculcated within the syllabus.

“This is a good effort by government, to say we need to catch them young, we need to teach them road safety at their young age such that people are able to practice it when they are grown up,” he said.

Nonetheless, Mr Reikeletseng said he was worried that the moment one gets into the work environment there is not much that is being said about road safety, but more focus is on HIV/AIDS.

“Just like HIV and AIDS, educating people on issues concerning road safety should be taken serious,” he said. ENDS