16 Jun 2019

Botswana’s endeavours to bring about improvements in road safety requires a collective effort from all stakeholders.

This was said by First Lady, Ms Neo Masisi when officially commissioning road safety infrastructure at Diphetogo Primary School in Gaborone West on June 14.

The infrastructure is a project by Africa Wide Road Traffic Injury Situation, which is sponsored by the FIA Foundation and Puma Energy Foundation.

It is being carried out across nine countries in Africa namely Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia.

“We hope our partnership with the FIA Foundation, Puma, Amend and Society of Road Safety Ambassadors (SORSA) will continue, thus creating a healthier  and safer journeys for our children. 

A successful partnership enhances the impact and effectiveness of action through combined and more efficient use of resources and promotion of innovation and strong commitment from each partner,” said Ms Masisi. 

She said the initiative was the beginning of a long and lasting partnership with government to reduce preventable and avoidable road deaths and injury.

“To other companies, please put this initiative in your corporate social responsibility menu.

We hope you also come forth and that next time we see a long list of corporate partners. 

Applying knowledge and best practices on road safety and harnessing the power of the private sector can help in addressing this health and development challenge,” she said.

Ms Masisi said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had identified road traffic injury as the leading cause of death among young people aged between five to 29 years surpassing HIV and Tuberculosis.

“Child pedestrians are a high risk group. 

A child in Africa is twice as likely to die from a road crash as a child from any other region in the world. 

Similar to the rest of the world, the carnage in Botswana roads is worrying and regrettably many victims are children and youth,” she said.

Ms Masisi noted that road safety education and more importantly the provision of infrastructure that reduced speed around schools would increase safety for children on the roads.

“I will not expect any child to be driven over, injured or killed at areas around schools because they are clearly marked and more often than not they are in residential areas, where it should just be a given that one should put their foot off the accelerator,” she added.

The safe routes to school event was graced by Ms Zoleka Mandela, a renowned road safety activist who shared her personal experiences. 

Ms Mandela lost her daughter Zenani in a car crash in 2010. 

She said Botswana could be a shining light of road safety education in the region.

For her part, Ms Ayikai Poswayo from Amend said the project involved the identification of schools where children had been involved in road crashes or were at a high risk of road traffic injury.

She said they implemented a simple yet lifesaving infrastructure improvements to slow vehicles down around schools and separate children from traffic.  BOPA