Blitz-krieg reckless drivers, veld fire enthusiasts

Stephen Mpofu

RECKLESS drivers whose “I don’t-care” attitudes and those people who hunt with veld fires and in the process endanger human lives in the global village deserve nothing short of blitz-kriegs to restore order and save lives.

Many lives are being lost on our roads these days as though the roads themselves are required to tell drivers to exercise caution on some highway stretches, when the onus rests with motorists to exercise extreme care on all stretches of the country’s roads to avoid accidents that have of late been occurring with heart-rending occurrences and resulting in precious lives of young and old being lost.

In the circumstances, this communicologist, and no doubt other concerned and grieving observers, should be forgiven for believing that the wanton recklessness by motorists is abated by a realisation that no-fear-of-God penalties are visited upon drivers that recklessly endanger the precious lives of other road users.

In the circumstances, this writer strongly believes that in order to make all of our roads safe for all users, our Government might wish to consider spine-chilling punishment against drivers whose recklessness risks discouraging foreign tourists coming to our nation fearing that they might lose their lives on roads leading to various tourist spots across the country.

Equally important and deserving urgent attention is the question of veld fires with reports on a local radio that three lives have already been lost in our country since July when then veld fire season, the latest being a woman who lost her life when trapped in a veld fire in Chipinge just a few days ago.

In her early sixties, the woman reportedly saw a veld fire approaching her homestead while visiting next door and ran towards her home in an apparent bid to save it from the fire but got burnt instead.

When farming seasons approach, some people use fire to prepare land for planting while others are known wantonly to hunt with veld fires, in the process endangering lives and properties.

But those wild fires have wider and more dangerous consequential effects not only for our country, but also for global village.

This is because toxic carbon gases from veld fires combine with similar gases in smoke from unmodified factory chimneys and from coal plants which soar high into the sky where they erode the ozone layer from the dangerous rays of the sun, resulting in Earth heating up to cause the global warming which has seen Zimbabwe and other countries suffering from recurrent droughts, with food shortages as a consequence that Zimbabwe is also experiencing right now after crops failed.

With seasons becoming erratic, the world over, it becomes extremely important for Zimbabwean farmers to take the advice of agricultural experts to grow drought resistant or small grains in regions that are prone to drought instead of preferring the white grain maize — introduced to Africa from South America by Portuguese sailors seeking a sea route to India — that more Zimbabweans rush for because of its lucrative price on the market.

Weather experts have said the 2024/25 rain season will record normal to above-normal rainfall. All the same, farmers in perennially dry regions should not turn their backs on small grains that are known to weather any weather.