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The human capital loss suffered by Zimbabwe as a result of road accidents has never been quantified in monetary terms, but it should run into billions of dollars.
Yes, the causes of road accidents are countless. It is however, disturbing that hundreds of motorists and their passengers have been killed due to reckless driving.
Now add to this the negligence, resettled farmers allow their livestock to stray on to the highways at night.
It is against this background that the Police Anti-Stock Theft Unit One should be saluted for arresting 178 farmers in the past week under an operation code-named “No to livestock on the roads/Kwete Mombe Mumigwagwa.”
Cattle found on the country’s major roads should be confiscated and the owners fined heavily for failing to manage their herd.
The country has not been recording the value of the vehicles damaged, the cattle killed and the heavy loss incurred as people with invaluable skills, talents and expertise die in road accidents involving stray cattle and donkeys.
Young men and women with vast potential to take this country to greater heights have had their lives terminated prematurely in accidents involving cattle.
A significant percentage of road accidents are a result of these mishaps.
We therefore call upon all Zimbabweans to be socially responsible and ensure that the responsibility to keep the animals away from our roads is theirs, not the police’s.
Farmers and community leaders should take this responsibility seriously because the losses caused by road carnage involving stray animals is so huge.
We also call upon Government to set up livestock monitoring patrol units that help drive away stray cattle from the roads and arrest owners for allowing their animals to graze on roads verges or sleep on the tarmac.
The owners of cattle that cause accidents should be made to foot part of the cost of repairing damaged vehicles, while in cases occupants dying, the law should also be amended to ensure they contribute towards costs of funerals.
We also implore Government to ensure that as the country embarks on the rehabilitation of the major highways, a fund is set up to erect perimeter fences to keep cattle away from the roads.
We also suggest that our railway lines be barricaded to avoid cattle straying, causing derailments.
Community leaders such as chiefs and headmen should ensure that along all major highways, they become custodians of this state property and all people caught vandalising the perimeter fences are brought to book.
If white former commercial farmers managed to maintain these fences for decades, what impression are we giving to the world if we continue vandalising them?
The country stands to save huge amounts of money and lives if people act responsibly and take charge of their immediate environment.
It is the duty of every Zimbabwean to save life.
Online Reporter