* Since they started their operations in the city streets of the country, Kabaza operators have earned more negatives over their behaviour on public roads
* That include using unregistered motorcycles — most them not road-worthy and not using safety helmets
* Also failure to observe traffic rules and above all operating at night without headlights or reflector lights
By Duncan Mlanjira
Ashraful Aid, an international humanitarian organisation headquartered in South Africa, is set to distribute reflector vests for motorcycle taxi (Kabaza) operators for them to be visible on public roads.
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Since they started their operations in the city streets of the country, Kabaza operators have earned more negatives over their behaviour on public roads, that include using unregistered motorcycles — most them not road-worthy; not using safety helmets, failure to observe traffic rules and above all operating at night without headlights or reflector lights.
With head office based in Marlboro Gardens, Sandton in South Africa — and branches in Lenasia, Azaadville, Cape Town, Durban, Zambia and Malawi — Ashraful Aid was on the ground in Malawi, delivering food packs to Focus Secondary School in Blantyre.
The food relief from Ashraful Aid
Country Director, Abbas Panjwani indicated that for the past few weeks, they had been mobilising members of the public to donate funds towards the purchase of the reflector vests for the kabaza operators.
“With the festive season around the corner, which claim the largest number of road accident fatalities, we engaged well-wishing individuals and organisations to donate funds towards the purchase of the reflector vests for kabaza operators,” he said.
On the flier enticing well-wishers, under the banner; ‘Bright Riders, Safe Roads-Let’s make our roads safe again’, the target was to raise for 1,000 vests with 10 of them at once at K50,000 and 100 at K500,000.
As of close of business yesterday, Panjwani and his team had received sponsorship for over 750 of the reflector vests, which he said will be officially handed over to beneficiaries, which were identified by Kabaza Operators Association.
Abbas Panjwani
“We worked closely with the Kabaza operators association, who identified the beneficiaries who are registered with the association,” Panjwani said. “The vests are unique in such that they will also act as an identification that the operators are registered.”
On Ashraful Aid website, ‘ashraful” means honourable and it “shapes and directs all” that the charity does: “Our organisation has constantly strived to sustain the needs of communities for over 27 years, growing from humble beginnings in Marlboro, Johannesburg to now being involved with multiple local and international projects in over 25 countries aiming to provide support and relief to the most vulnerable when they need it most.”
The initiative to make kabaza operators visible through the reflector vests is certainly a welcome development, as motorists have constantly expressed their disdain at how they disregard road traffic rules, which ended in accidents.
Overloading is part of a kabaza operator
Every accident involving a motorcyclist, no matter how minimal the impact might be on collision, the rider and its passenger always sustain very serious injuries.
The Malawi Orthopaedic Association (MOA) has always maintained that there is a huge burden of treating road accidents victims in the country’s hospitals, with 49% of them being from kabaza operators.
She said this in September, during a kabaza safety awareness campaign function at Area 25, Nsungwi in Lilongwe, attended by Deputy Minister of Health, Halima Daudi, MOA president Maureen Sabao gave an example of Lions Hospital, which has a bed capacity of 65 but they are times they on 135-bed capacity due to increased kabaza accident victims.
Kabaza operators can be a nuisance on the roads
The ripple effect is that many of the patient sustain multiple fractures, which means that if they are admitted for long, they use resources that could have been covered by five people — adding that such fractures take time to heal to a period of not more than two to three months.
“Thus, if a person was working then he will not work for that period and economically that person is suffering and as a country we are using a lot of health budget,” she had said.
Weather update
On her part the Deputy Minister of Health also observed that statistics of road traffic accidents involving kabaza are alarming — emphasising that such rise presents a public health crisis that touches every aspect of the nation, including the health system, families and the economy.
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She quoted data of motorcycle accidents for 2022-2023, which showed that 1,800 people died from injuries sustained from accidents involved by kabaza operators, saying: “These are not just numbers behind each statistic, but a story of pain, loss, struggle — particularly among young men aged between 15-59 most of whom are bread winners in the families.
“The ripple effect of these injuries extend beyond the immediate trauma, leaving long lasting socio economic scars on both families and community.”
Thus, the initiative by Ashraful Aid is a broader assisting towards creating safety awareness on the roads as the road traffic authorities formalises the training and registration of kabaza operators, which has been long overdue.
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