… ‘kombi businessman lacks compassion’

Brighton Chiseva

The families of
victims of a fatal omnibus accident which occurred recently at Morgenster are
bitter that the owner of the vehicle showed no compassion to them in their time
of grief, and has made no effort to commiserate with them, let alone provide
some form of compensation.

The omnibus crushed
after failing to negotiate a curve just after Morgenster Mission Hospital on
Its way from Renco Mine to Masvingo city.

It overturned and
killed three people on the spot while the other two were pronounced dead upon
admission at Morgenster Hospital. A total of 12 other passengers were injured.

Relatives of Esther
Mhere, who is one of the deceased victims, said the owner of the vehicle,
Samuel Mushayi, did not bother to assist them meet burial expenses.

The deceased’s
son, Godfree Mhere said they were shocked by the kombi owner’s behaviour who he
accused of taking their patience for granted.

“He called us and
said we had to meet at Pick n Pay Masvingo but we waited for him for several
hours as he kept on saying he was coming. We then got tired of waiting and went
to Moonlight funeral parlour where he against promised to meet us but failed to
show up,” said Mhere.

The deceased’s brother
Jestinos Mahachi said they were still pained that two weeks had gone by without
hearing anything from Mushayi.

He said they
will were not letting him get away with it since the whole family was failing
to come to terms with what happened.

“We know
accidents do happen and they are not planned but the owner should show a little
respect to the affected people. He even promised to meet us and we delayed the
taking our relative’s body from the parlour only to be disappointed.

“If he was that
busy, he could have sent a messanger just to show that he was sorry. We even
told him that we were not after his money,” said Mahachi.

When contacted
for comment, Mushayi said some of the family had been hostile to him and had
refused to accept his help.

“Since they had
a funeral policy I could not buy a coffin for them. I then asked what I could
do to help but they asked me to wait for someone to decide and when they made
up their minds, I had gone to Zaka for burial of other two victims from the
same family.

“I then offered some
money and requested for their EcoCash number as I did to the other families but
they refused. They were so bitter and the police had warned that I had to be
careful to avoid another tragedy,” said Mushayi.

Local Member of Parliament
Claudious Maronge, however, chipped by providing transport and some food to the
grieving family.

Cephas Shava

MWENEZI – Reckless
driving coupled with the worrisome state of the country’s busiest main road; the
Harare-Beitbridge highway is continuously costing innocent lives that could otherwise
be avoided.

If
corrective measures were to be taken by authorities through upgrades and
maintenance, the Mwenezi stretch of the artery will cease to be the death trap
that it currently is.

Recently,
the Mwenezi stretch recorded two separate fatal accidents within a short space
of time. The first one occurred at the 129km peg where a South Africa-bound
Africa Link bus killed five people and left 45 others injured. The second
accident happened at the 166km peg where an omnibus collided head-on with a
haulage truck, killing all the six men who were in the omnibus.

The
two fatal accidents and many other ‘minor’ ones are caused mostly by reckless driving
and the bad state the road.

Mwenezi
District Development Coordinator (DDC), Rosemary Chingwe said the highway was
probably deadliest in Mwenezi.

She
said urgent repairs and upgrades were needed on many parts of the road, and
urged drivers to stop over-speeding and violating other road rules.

“The
highway is in bad shape and needs serious attention from Chirundu to Beitbridge.
As for the Mwenezi stretch, you find that several fatalities are being recorded
as a result of an increase in the number of unattended black spots.

“There
is a double curve at the 129km peg but there are no roads signs there. A lot of
attention is needed at that scene which is proving to be a horrible black spot.
It must also be noted, however, that several accidents occurring there are a
result of over-speeding and overtaking errors,” said Chingwe.

National
police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi told TellZim News that
investigations were still in progress to determine the factors leading to the
most recent 129km peg accident.

Some
evidence at hand, however, suggests that human error played a big role in that
horrible mishap.

It
is said the driver of the commuter omnibus flashed his vehicle’s lights at the
haulage truck, thereby disorienting the truck driver who then encroached into
the wrong lane, resulting in a high-impact head-on collision.

The
truck dragged the omnibus for some metres metres off the road, killing all the
six men who were on board.

Some
drivers that spoke to TellZim News said there was a possibility that recklessness
was the main cause of the accident.

“The
truck driver should have reduced speed and shifted his gaze a bit to the side when
the commuter omnibus driver flashed his lights. These are the basic lessons we
are taught in driving school. The fact that the truck dragged the omnibus tells
you a lot about the speed at which it was travelling.

“Unless
the truck driver was sleeping on the steering, the possibility is that the two
drivers became just stubborn and failed to give each other way, resulting in
the unnecessary loss of lives,” said one motorist.

Some
pothole-feeling work has been done on the stretch of the road but there is
obviously a lot of work that needs to be done as an increase of traffic in the
festive season is expected to cause more losses of life.

Star Matsongoni

City of Masvingo is not paying
much attention to the safe disposal of sanitary pads and diapers, with many
residents dumping these environmentally harmful materials anywhere.

Besides the impact of that such
material has on the environment, the general sentiment is also that failure by
authorities to build incinerators at strategic places in the city has a negative
effect on women’s right to dignified disposal of their used sanitary wear.

Women’s rights advocates and
environmentalists who spoke to TellZim News said the presence of used sanitary
wear and diapers in the open surroundings was an affront the environment as
much as it was an attack on the dignity of women.

Women Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ)
Masvingo provincial chapter coordinator, Belinda Mwale said refuse collection
challenges in the city meant that many used diapers and sanitary pads end up on
the streets, in the drains or in water bodies.

“The main challenge we are facing
is that we don’t have the knowledge of how pads should be properly disposed, and
neither do we have enough resources to enable their safe disposal. If we are to
burn the pads since refuse collection schedules are not reliable, we would
surely be violating one or two environmental laws and by-laws,” said Mwale.

She said the right to a safe
period for women was not an end unto itself as it should extend to dignified
disposal of the sanitary wear

“Inadequate water supply is another
challenge we face. If we were to get reusable sanitary pads, that would both be
more cost effective and environmentally-friendlier but there is no enough water
to wash the material all the time,” said Mwale.

A Mucheke woman who spoke on
condition of anonymity said she felt uncomfortable throwing her used sanitary
wear in the average rubbish bins due to some superstitious beliefs she grew up
to know.

“We I grew up, we would be told
that used sanitary pads could be used by juju people for malicious reasons. I
therefore do not dispose of them in the bin. I always flush them down the
toilet even though I know that they clog the sewer systems. I would be
confortable throwing them in an incinerator,” said the woman.

A Masvingo City Council employee
revealed that local authority spends thousands of dollars every month removing
grit from its sewer systems, and many sewer pipe bursts are recorded everyday
due to blockages caused by many alien objects including sanitary pads and
diapers.

Former mayor Hubert Fidze has
been very vocal about the effects of disposable nappies on the city’s water
supply, complaining that the unchecked use and irregular disposal of that
material was seriously polluting Mucheke River and ultimately Lake Mutirikwi,
from where the city draws all its drinking water.

Other residents said council
could engage huge institutions like Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) so that
they could partner to build incinerators at strategic points for use by both
residents and students.

“The council is not playing its
role. They come after two weeks or more for refuse collection and this results
in diapers being thrown around. There are many stakeholders like institutions
of higher learning and private companies that can be engaged for the building
of incinerators,” said one resident.

When contacted for a comment the
City of Masvingo Department of Environmental Health acting director Ngonidzashe
Mapamula refused to comment.