One life too many
This week was a very sad one for Malawi as we witnessed another tragedy whereby 24 precious lives were lost while many other people were left nursing injuries of various degrees after a 10 tonne lorry was involved in a road accident in Karonga District. My condolences to the bereaved families and let me wish a quick recovery to those that were injured.
This week was a very sad one for Malawi as we witnessed another tragedy whereby 24 precious lives were lost while many other people were left nursing injuries of various degrees after a 10 tonne lorry was involved in a road accident in Karonga District. My condolences to the bereaved families and let me wish a quick recovery to those that were injured.
Much as the entire country is still in mourning, I feel we still need to remind each other about the dangers of travelling in open air vehicles such as the one that was involved in this accident, which, essentially is meant to facilitate transportation of goods.
It is sheer recklessness and truly inconceivable that somehow, we would allow over 80 people to be crammed in the back of a lorry and embark on a long distance trip, giving total disregard to road safety and set guidelines. Just this other other day, I hired a 2 tonne lorry to run an errand and I was intrigued by how careful the driver of the vehicle was as he stressed that only three people (including himself) are the only ones that are allowed in the front cabin while none should dare sit in the back as it is strictly for loading goods. That ought to be the approach if we are to avoid some of these accidents happening on our roads.
We have seen, day in and day out, vehicles that are not roadworthy plying within our communities, even travelling at night without any lights, road permits and so on.
We could count until chickens come home to roost the number of people that we have lost over the years due to road accidents involving lorries that were, albeit, allowed to roam on the country’s roads freely.
While we are on the subject, it was sad to learn that, still in the course of the week, somewhere up North some traffic officers had detained a Toyota Sienta that reportedly had on board a very sick child. It is reported that even thought they were told of the situation, the law enforcers would hear none of it, insisting that the driver should first settle the fine he had been given for exceeding carrying capacity before continuing on his journey.
As all this was going on, the little one was sadly breathing his last inside that detained car. Regardless of whether it was the police or the driver who was at fault, the fact of the matter remains that another life was lost needlessly, plucked under the most cruel circumstance
Awaking sleeping dogs
That nagging issue of the contentious public reforms report that Malawians excitedly anticipated to be made available in the public domain, which was produced under the watchful eye of Vice President Saulos Chilima, once again came to the fore this week.
Just when everybody else was beginning to accept the status quo that the powers-that-beat House Number One was not interested to furnish the people with the contents and decided to live with it, President Lazarus Chakwera decided to re-ignite the issue when he pointed out that the said report was meant to be a reference document and not “a document for public entertainment or public debates that produce nothing but noise”.
Mr. President, what you need to bear in mind is that that document is for public institutions and these handle matters on behalf of Malawians and as such, citizens have the right to know of the goings-on; after all, it is ‘public’ reforms report. Looking at what had triggered the move to come up with that particular reforms report, Malawians deserved to have a peak at the contents.
This country has been beseeched by corruption left right and centre and as such, we needed to start seeing concrete steps that the government , led by President Chakwera, is undertaking.
I guess time then, will be the best judge if indeed the leadership has been pursuing reforms and achieved commendable milestones as said by the President. Otherwise, it is not right to keep going round in circles on this matter since many had already made peace with the status quo.