Manicaland drivers top safety rankings

Munodawafa also told NewsDay in an interview that Zimbabwe’s bad roads contributed to about 6% of road accidents, while 94% were a result of bad behaviour by drivers.

ROAD users in Manicaland province have been ranked at the top of Zimbabwe’s road traffic compliance rate scoring 80% in the first inspection conducted by the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ).

This emerged during the Road Safety Coverage held in Harare this week.

Addressing the meeting, TSCZ managing director Munesu Munodawafa warned bad road users to change their bad behaviour and avoid accident-led deaths.

“We did carry out the first audit of driving rules in Zimbabwe in the period from April to May and the idea was to check on the level of compliance,” he said.

“The results were shockingly in the negative. At that stage, we had about 52% compliance rate when I look at all the 13 parameters that we were judging them on.

“At that stage, we engaged them and we have since done a second audit, which is still ongoing now. For Harare, it was (done) in September and I’m pleased to say that the figure rose to 78% in terms of compliance.”

Munodawafa, however, expressed concern over the remaining 22% who are not fully compliant depending on the nature of gaps in their operations.

“Some of them, we have written warning letters, others were clearly indicated that if they do not reform and meet our expectations by a certain date, we will have no choice, but to cancel their permit of operations.

“Manicaland compliance rate was much higher than Harare. It’s over 80% and for Manicaland, this was the first inspection, so we are quite happy,” the TSCZ boss said.

Munodawafa also told NewsDay in an interview that Zimbabwe’s bad roads contributed to about 6% of road accidents, while 94% were a result of bad behaviour by drivers.

In a bid to mitigate corruption at Vehicle Inspectorate Department (VID), Munodawafa said, government sent a committee which will be investigating the issues.

“The team is now in Mashonaland East and are doing the same. I am aware that there are issues to do with possibly VID and the minister did, in fact, set up a team.

“As we are speaking, there is a committee that was set up by the minister that is going around the country, so that decisions are made from an informed position,” he said.

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