07 Oct 2018

Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Culture Development, Mr Thapelo Olopeng says road traffic accidents derail government plans to develop Batswana.

Speaking at this year’s commemoration of the Month of Youth Against Road Accidents in Tonota on Saturday, the Minister said accidents affected the economy because government channelled a lot of money towards challenges and impact brought about by road accidents.

He explained that in 2016 alone Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund disbursed over P140 million as claims towards road accident victims and that government continued to use more money every year toward the carnage.

He said some of the money used towards road accidents was the money that should be used to create jobs for Batswana.

He further stated that most of the accidents affected the youth who make 60 per cent of the population and whom government had invested a lot in to become what they are today.

He cited that in 2017 there were 17 780 road accidents and out of this figure a total of 444 were fatalities that involved the youth.

He said the situation was a serious challenge for a country like Botswana, which has a population of just 2.2 million.

He called upon motorists to change driving behaviour, exercise responsibility, patience  and obey road signs at all times, adding that government may be compelled to tighten penalties if the road traffic accidents continue to claim lives.

On other issues, Minister Olopeng, also MP for Tonota, raised a concern on the use of illicit drugs by Batswana, particularly in schools, the act he attributed to some irresponsible members of the society who continue to sell drugs to students.

For his part, MVA Francistown branch manager, Mr Kite Nkala said statistics indicate that between 2017 and to date 2 024 road fatalities were recorded, saying most of the people who made this figure are males totaling to 1 544.

He said to date, 342 males had already died in road accidents compared to 326 who died during the same period last year.

Mr Nkala further explained that what was mostly disheartening was the fact that a large number of young lives were also lost in these accidents.

Mr Nkala said some of the road accident victims were left with spinal cord injuries, head injuries, multiple fractures and amputations, which was another problem for government and relatives who are bound to look after them.

Mr Nkala said another troubling factors was that there were more males than female drivers on the roads, adding that  males were natural risk takers. ENDs