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Nyimba accident has been horrifying, says Rev Matale

Nyimba accident has been horrifying, says Rev Matale
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Wed 03 Aug. 2011, 14:00 CAT

THE Nyimba accident has been horrifying for many people, says Council of Churches in Zambia secretary general Suzanne Matale. And Rev Matale says there is urgent need to work on the country’s road network and stiffen laws on the issuance of public service vehicle (PSV) licences to avoid accidents.

Commenting on last week’s Nyimba accident which has so far claimed 38 lives, Rev Matale said the accident had been horrifying for many people because many lives had been lost.

She said the standards in terms of making sure that all the people who aspire to drive public vehicles have a PSV licence had been lost.

Rev Matale said people who drive public vehicles should be of a sober character and also of the right age.

“Most of these accidents happen because of careless drivers who don’t qualify to drive on the road,” she said.

She said there was need to tighten the rules on obtaining PSV licences.

Rev Matale said the roads as well as the drivers were bad and this was causing accidents on the roads.

She said the reasons for the accident were clear because the road had been carnage for a very long time and said it was important that something was urgently done to improve the road.

Rev Matale also said there were so many vehicles on the road and the government was not seeing the importance of widening and building new roads.

She said people were now almost driving on top of each other which was causing chaos.

“No one is following the rules anymore. There are too many cars and no new roads constructed. This is making people unproductive because it takes forever to get from one place to another. You spend hours and hours just on the road. Zambians are becoming unproductive because they are spending too much time on the road than in the office,” she said.

Rev Matale said it was understandable that the current roads were being improved but it was important to have new roads to decongest the existing ones.

Meanwhile, Rev Matale has condemned the MMD cadres who attacked Muvi TV journalists during their tour of duty.

She told political parties that it was undemocratic to harass people who were merely carrying out their work to educate and inform the public on what was happening in the country.

Rev Matale said the media should be left to report truthfully.

She also expressed regret that the planned demonstration by the Zambia Media Women Association (ZAMWA) which was scheduled for last Friday was stopped.

Rev Matale said one could not understand why a peaceful demonstration was stopped because demonstrations which were peaceful were part of a democratic dispensation.

Labels: CAR ACCIDENTS, ROADS, SUZANNE MATALE

posted by MrK @ 8:02 PM