Hertta-Maria Amutenja
The delay in passing the much-anticipated Road Safety Management Bill has sparked concerns among road safety advocates.
After the 9th Annual Road Safety Conference in Ongwediva, road safety activist, Felix Tjozongoro voiced his frustration over the bill’s prolonged delay.
“It is very much concerning that the urgently much-awaited Road Safety Management Bill is still dragging its feet and hasn’t reached Parliament. We expected positive feedback at the conference about its status,” said Tjozongoro.
He highlighted the bill’s importance in consolidating various road safety role players under one roof, including Nampol Traffic, Road Fund Administration, NaTIS offices, municipal traffic law enforcement units, the National Road Safety Council, and overload control law enforcement units.
The activist noted that the Law Reform Commission discussed the bill in 2017. He suggested that internal factors might be contributing to the delay.
“A lot of groundwork was done prior to that. The former Law Reform Chairperson and now minister of justice dealt with this matter in 2017 already. And now, eight years later, this bill is still not before Parliament, and we are losing more than 600 citizens a year. There could be elements within the road safety sector that thrive on chaos or that deliberately derail programmes of the National Road Safety Council to bolster their own egos,” said Tjozongoro.
The activist also expressed concern over the lack of senior representation at the annual road safety conference.
“National conferences of this magnitude would usually attract the levels of CEOs of organisations or senior executive members, supported by some junior staff members that are ground-level operational staff. Decisions and institutional commitments are then taken on the spot, and work is cascaded below for execution,” he said.
Tjozongoro’s sentiments were echoed by the deputy prime minister and minister of works and transport, John Mutorwa.
Mutorwa emphasised the need for all executing agencies to show more ownership of their assigned roles and responsibilities.
“The execution of the annual plan to be crafted at this conference requires the commitment and dedication of all stakeholders and executing agencies.”
Despite the development of numerous strategies over the past 34 years, Mutorwa noted that their implementation still presents significant challenges.
“Not all of these strategies have seen the required implementation, and the strategy execution gap is one of the key problems Namibia is experiencing,” he said.
The Law Reform and Development Commission report from September 2018 outlined the provisions of the Road Safety Management Bill, which aims to establish a Road Safety Agency, integrate various road safety functions, and create a comprehensive National Road Safety Plan. Despite these detailed provisions, the bill has yet to reach Parliament.
When asked about the bill’s status, National Assembly spokesperson Rafael Hangula stated, “No, it didn’t reach us, please check with the Ministry of Justice.”
Justice minister, Yvonne Dausab had not responded to queries sent to her by the time of publication.
