Moaning for good

I trust you enjoy the ambiguity of the title. Allow me, without delay, to adopt the optimistic version. Where timely moaning spares me the later groaning.

One of the first rules of life – it takes only one to lead the masses and it takes only a few to disgrace the masses. The first finds its relevance in the political and corporate environments. The second is most visible on the roads.

I would much prefer to spend my weekly word allocation entertaining the readers and putting them in a good Thursday mood, helping create a happy and productive day. However, I have a responsibility to draw urgent issues to the readers’ attention despite the possible reaction among those who can make an impact – an inclination to nod, raise an eyebrow or two, then shrug their shoulders and do nothing about it.

We read recently about a 33-year-old Iraqi woman who lost her entire family during an attack in her bedroom 20 years ago. How she got over that is impossible to imagine. She did, though. Yet, even one death is a massive tragedy. A life over and irreversible emotional damage to the family,

Nonetheless, that is precisely what we will get on our roads if something is not done about the selfish behaviour that we see every day of our lives. Most of the drivers behave responsibly. However, others are increasingly taking risks that threaten their own lives far less than the lives of others. 

Ever since the invention of the internal combustion engine, we have lived with  two  main dangers on the roads – people driving too fast and screaming round bends with bald tyres on an unsafe surface. In more recent times, we have seen the emergence of the increasingly domineering ‘bumper brigade.’

Quite simply, they are those who at some stage in their self-centred lives have come to understand that the word ‘bumper’ is also there to indicate the driver’s right – where the vehicle in front is in the overtaking lane – to intimidate that driver, effectively threatening to bump them out of the way. On the roads of the USA, the bumper part of a vehicle is known as the ‘fender.’ Clearly, the fender is designed as the defender against a bump from the bumper (lol).

You now see, more than ever, the bully-boy driving; especially failing to allow the driver in front in the overtaking lane to pause for a mere second before pulling over.

You see it a lot on the Malagwane hill, both up and down. Why do drivers do this? They are perfectly entitled to flash and hoot from a safe distance. Under such pressure, the driver in front should pull aside. It’s now very sadly become a macho thing. ‘Hey guys – watch me tickling the bum-per of the dude in front. I’m so cool.’ AKA – I’m so dangerous.

Then we have the drivers in quite considerable numbers, crossing red lights as if they are fully mandated to ignore them and make their own decisions. The rest of the traffic is duty-bound to respect those decisions. If a cartoon-type bubble were to emerge from the driver’s head to communicate his views, the same would be captured.

That selfish and indeed criminal behaviour is surpassed in the most recent times by the drivers taking a roundabout on the right-hand side; as if they’re in the USA or Europe. Except they’re not and it’s just a very dangerous shortcut. I even recently witnessed a car doing that at the same time as forcing off the road one that was coming the right way. These are no longer the drivers with the caps on back to front. They’re all-sorts who appear to care only about themselves and disregarding the law.

Right, so what is to be done? Firstly, we need the Royal Eswatini Police Service to show higher visibility. That’s a fundamental police strategy across the full spectrum of maintaining law and order, but also invisible at the key locations – traffic lights and roundabouts around the towns- armed to the teeth with video cameras and receipt books ready to prosecute offenders with a dangerous driving rap.

I appeal to the administrators and parliamentarians to legislate the pathetic E60 fine out of the dark ages and into the real world. No good complaining about constituents not being able to afford higher fines, as happened 20 years ago. The amount has to be a real deterrent, and if the offence is serious, a driver should lose the licence for a set period.

If the local authorities of Eswatini are thinking their cities are going to get ‘smart’, then forget the fancy shopping complexes and, instead, build the pavements for every highway where students are walking to school. Failing that, since we all live in ‘the land of the speed bumps’ (there’s that preoccupation with bumps again), get some placed in those streets.

This week, I encountered a ‘smart’ vehicle actually overtaking at speed along Sololo St (parallel to the old highway to town) with Mbabane Central High pupils cowering in fear for their lives on both sides of that street and with no pavement to protect them. It was obscene driving behaviour. Not the first time and not the only street. In the meantime, stick up 40kph signs and get the police watching like hawks. We must protect our pedestrians and their unchallengeable right to life. Don’t leave them so exposed.