adminRobin Muchetu Senior Reporter
“THE love for food, is the root to all looting”, this should be a new idiom writers can introduce, as humans seem to put food before all else. While a Bravo Transport driver was battling to come out of the wreckage of a haulage truck after being involved in an accident yesterday morning, passersby were busy looting mahewu, a traditional beverage, that had been strewn on the tarmac instead of helping him.
The driver from Harare was involved in an accident on a curve along the Harare Road near Paddonhurst garage in Bulawayo just after 8.30am.
He was carrying a load of Shumba Maheu which was destined for a Delta Beverages depot in Bulawayo when the accident occurred.
The driver of the truck told the Sunday News that the truck fell on its side as he was driving along a bend.
“I was coming from Harare and when I reached the curve the load I was carrying suddenly shifted to the left and the vehicle equally turned in that direction. The truck then fell and landed on its side,” he said.
The driver was, however, whisked away by a man who said he was his boss before he could shed more light on the issue.
An eye witness to the accident, Mr Ernest Murwira said he was facing the truck when he saw the load falling off.
“I was walking and then I just saw things falling off the trailer of the truck onto the side of the road. Soon after that the trailer overturned and the horse of the truck followed,” he said.
Mr Murwira said the driver was moving at a safe speed but upon approaching the bend the load flew off forcing the truck to also overturn and land on its side.
He said it was rather unfortunate that people were interested in looting than helping the driver who was temporarily trapped in the vehicle.
“People took advantage of the fact that there were no police at the scene and started taking cartons of mahewu instead of helping the driver. The police only arrived later together with the ambulance but they had already taken the mahewu,” he said.
The case of people looting goods at an accident scene is not a first. Last year, a haulage truck carrying tonnes of washing powder in Esigodini caught fire as it was scaling a hill and people grabbed boxes of the washing powder that were falling off.
In another scary incident of looting, a petrol tanker had an accident and people could be seen taking fuel with containers, oblivious of the danger that they were putting themselves in.
Online Reporter