Pretoria - Divine intervention and community efforts were the answers to the multiple road deaths on the Mabopane Highway and other South African roads.
This is according to John Molepo, of Soshanguve, who has called on community members, taxi associations and churches to convene for the third annual spiritual intervention on the highway.
The spiritual intervention will take place on Thursday, and participants will meet at Transfer BP Garage at 4:30pm and then proceed to the Mabopane Highway. They will lay wreaths and light candles as they remember lost lives in road accidents. Taxi associations, churches, Road Accident Fund and City of Tshwane representatives are expected to join.
“Spiritual intervention at Mabopane Highway is needed with the hope of reducing accidents as unity defeats all odds,” said Molepo, the organiser of the initiative and TUT FM presenter. He added that awareness campaigns about safety should be done regularly, not forgetting the high visibility of traffic officers.
While many people celebrated the festive season, others mourned the loss of their loved ones in road accidents, he said.
“We are calling all the spiritual groups and different faith groups in the city from Soshanguve, Hammanskraal, Mabopane, Winterveldt and everywhere else to join us in seeking spiritual intervention to curb the road accidents on the Mabopane Highway and others in South Africa,” he said.
“During the festive season, we see a lot of reckless driving, speeding and fatigued motorists on roads. The impatient drivers, disregard for rules of the road and accidents involving taxis are among the most common sights.”
Molepo said that although he had only been doing this initiative for three years, the number of accidents on the highway had been decreasing.
He said the Tshwane Metro Police Department had recorded 219 accidents on the Mabopane Highway since January and that was a call for people to take a decisive stand.
“We can’t just depend on the government to tell us to behave on the roads as accidents affect all of us at the end of the day. It is a societal issue and who better to take up the call than us,” said Molepo.
He urged law enforcement agencies to ensure they maintained high visibility during the festive period.
Pretoria News