Politicians, religious leaders, members of various church denominations and representatives of the various communities gathered at a designated spot along the new Musina Ring Road last Friday to pray for an end to road accidents on Musina's roads.
Since the opening of the Musina Ring Road in August this year, several fatal accidents have occurred on this road. With the festive season approaching, the prayer session was aimed at asking for God's divine intervention in keeping lives safe on these roads.
Musina Municipality's traffic manager, Mr Ailwei Mutele, said that Musina, being a border town, usually experienced high volumes of traffic during the festive season. "The high volume of traffic contributes to the high number of accidents on our roads during the festive season. We have done everything humanly possible to avert accidents. It is now time to ask God to intervene. We felt that it was important to hold this prayer session, because we want our road users to be safe this festive season. This prayer session should provide an opportunity for long-term and coordinated activities in support of local and national road safety initiatives," Mutele said.
Addressing the audience during the event, Musina Mayor Godfrey Mawela said that a need existed to build solid partnerships with various stakeholders, including public-transport operators, law-enforcement agencies and the religious community to make road safety everybody's responsibility. "As we pray, let us be mindful of the threats in sight as we start this festive campaign. This includes stray animals, bad driving behaviour, speeding and drunken driving. Besides asking for God's intervention, we should also play our part as road users because some of the road accidents are preventable."
Shortly after the formal addresses, Pastor Titus Madamalala led the prayer session in the middle of the road under the supervision of traffic officers.