Allexer Namundjembo
A petition calling for pedestrian bridges instead of speed humps on the B1 highway has collected more than 16 560 signatures, organisers say.
Social justice activist Michael Amushelelo, who is spearheading the petition, said the total includes electronic signatures and over 1 000 handwritten signatures.
The campaign is demanding the removal of what it calls “poorly planned, bolted plastic-and-metal speed humps” which it alleges are causing catastrophic highway collisions.
Amushelelo has announced plans to sue the minister of works and transport, Veikko Nekundi, through Kadhila Amoomo Legal Practitioners.
“The planned class-action lawsuit seeks financial compensation for motorists who claim their vehicles were damaged or who suffered injuries due to the speed humps,” he said.
Claims listed include damages to the suspension, rims, chassis and bodywork of vehicles, as well as hospital and emergency costs, ongoing medical treatment, pain and suffering, and loss of income.
“Visual evidence proves what we have been warning the authorities about. These speed humps are not safety measures, they are active death traps causing catastrophic highway collisions,” the organisers stated in a call to action to motorists.
Amushelelo argued the state must be held accountable for “positive misfeasance and endangering the public”.
Responding to questions on Sunday, Amushelelo said the organisers will not disclose their course of action for the time being following the collection of signatures.
The ministry of works and transport has not yet commented on the allegations or the planned legal action.
Road safety expert and activist Felix Tjozongoro said last week that public frustration with speed humps on the Western Bypass is misguided and that the real crisis lies in Namibian driver behaviour.
Tjozongoro dismissed claims that the humps are improperly placed or unlawful, stating that much of the outcry stems from misunderstanding what the Western Bypass is under Namibian law.
“By international engineering standards, a freeway must have Full Access Control, Grade Separation, and Divided Carriageways. Our Bypass currently has traffic lights, allows pedestrians and cyclists, and is only now beginning to close off informal access points. Until these conditions are met, calling it a freeway is legally and technically incorrect,” he stated.
He said Regulation 323(2) gives the minister authority to implement lower speed limits via road signs where safety demands it, and that the signage on the disputed stretch provides clear warnings before reductions to 60km/h, then 30km/h, and speed hump warnings.
“If a driver hits a traffic-calming measure at 100km/h in a clearly marked 30km/h zone, the fault lies entirely with the driver, not the hump,” he said.
“We have lost far too many family breadwinners on the Western Bypass. When a breadwinner is killed in a high-speed crash, the economic and emotional stability of an entire household shatters. How can we, as a society, compare the minor inconvenience of slowing down for two minutes to the permanent, devastating cost of losing a human life?”
Tjozongoro described rear-end collisions and grievances as a reflection of driver behaviour rather than engineering failure, and called for a shift from ego to empathy on Namibian roads.
The Ministry of Works and Transport, responding to recent articles, said extensive stakeholder engagement took place before installation.
Executive Director Jonas Sheelongo stated that site visits included the Roads Authority, Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, National Road Safety Council, and traffic law enforcement agencies including Nampol and Windhoek City Police.
The ministry said all mandatory and statutory provisions prescribed by Namibian law were followed throughout the process.
