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Speaking during the Union for Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe (UDACIZA) conference in Bulawayo yesterday, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development, Mr Munesu Munodawafa, said reducing carnage on the country’s roads was everybody’s duty.
The conference was organised by the Zimbabwe Traffic Safety Council (TSCZ).
“The Ministry, through TSCZ has engaged churches in an awareness programme that is meant to mitigate accidents that have claimed several lives on our roads. We have realised that churches have huge followers, with some having more than three million congregants,” said Mr Munodawafa.
“If we reach out to these church leaders, it means that we have effectively communicated to more than three million people in the country.”
Mr Munodawafa said the on-going awareness campaign was a follow-up programme to another campaign that was being conducted at schools.
“We are running a similar programme to educate school children about road safety but we have decided to take another dimension targeting churches, who will then impart the knowledge to their church members. We believe that we have started this programme early enough to significantly reduce carnage on our roads during this festive season.
“Churches organise huge gatherings which make them travel in large numbers. We are therefore appealing to church leaders to discourage the use of unroadworthy vehicles, speeding and overloading when they are travelling,” he said.
The TSCZ managing director, Mr Obio Chinyere, said the awareness programme targeted church leaders because a majority of the country’s population were Christians.
“About 85 percent of the country’s population are Christians. This means that if we reach out to all the churches then we have communicated with 85 percent of the people in the country.
“Although our roads are not perfect, most accidents have occurred due to human error, unroadworthy vehicles, speeding and drunken driving. It is therefore important to reach out to the people and promote behaviour change,” said Mr Chinyere.
He said it was important for all the stakeholders to be seriously involved in the campaign for the fight against accidents to be successful.
“More than 2 000 people are dying every year due to accidents and we cannot ignore this. The Government, including the Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) and the Central Vehicle Registry (CVR), the police, the media and all the stakeholders have to join hands in this fight.
“We have to change people’s habits on the roads for us to win this war,” said Mr Chinyere.
The national traffic police spokesperson, Inspector Tigere Chigome, said the conference was a clear indication that the Government was committed to reducing carnage on the roads.
“We are happy that we have managed to meet church leaders through efforts by the Government. As the police we cannot reduce carnage alone. We are therefore calling on the church leaders to play a leading role in road safety campaigns in the country,” said Insp Chigome.
The conference was attended by more than 200 church leaders from the Apostolic sects in the country, police officers, officials from TSCZ and other organisations.
During last year’s festive season 82 people died in road accidents across the country, while 671 people were injured in 899 accidents recorded during the period.
Meanwhile, the National Blood Services Zimbabwe (NBSZ) yesterday said it has enough blood reserves to satisfy demand during the forthcoming festive season.
In an interview, NBSZ spokesperson Miss Esther Massundah said although the blood reserves they had were satisfactory, they would launch a rigorous campaign for more blood.
“We need to have enough blood anytime of the year although emphasis is usually on the festive season where there is an increase of road accidents resulting in the demand for the blood overwhelming supply,” said Miss Massundah.
She said they would launch the campaign this month and it would be targeting all stakeholders including hospitals and the traffic sector.
“Our campaign for blood this year is different because we intend to rope in previous recipients of our services.
“This will help motivate other people who are reluctant to donate blood because they will bring in their testimonies that can help others understand the importance of donating blood,” said Miss Massundah.
She said they would also embark on donor mobilisation campaign that would be centred on encouraging more people to donate blood.
“This campaign which will go up to January 2013 when the festive season ends. Our message to prospective recipients is that donating blood is like saving lives and it will be more like a Christmas present when done during this period,” said Miss Massundah.
She appealed to mothers across the country to donate blood, as 40 percent of the blood donated was channelled towards maternity health.
“The rest of the percentage is used towards trauma (accidents) and surgery. Donating blood is everybody’s responsibility,” said Miss Massundah.
Online Reporter