HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — When Tafara Muvhevhi, a Zimbabwean driving instructor, started work 16 years ago, his job was simple: teach the highway code and prepare students to take their driving test.
Today, his priorities have changed. His main concern is no longer just the exam, but whether his students will survive some of the world’s deadliest roads. This is vital in a country where road crashes are among the top killers, according to the national statistics agency, and road accident fatality rates are among the worst on the continent. In Zimbabwe, a crash occurs every 15 minutes and five die and 38 are injured every day, according to the country’s traffic safety agency.
“Back then we were teaching by the book, it was all by the book,” said Muvhevhi as he coached his latest student through parallel parking and smooth reversals in spaces marked by blue drums on a dusty and worn tarmac training ground on the outskirts of the capital, Harare.
Once known for orderly traffic and well-maintained roads, Zimbabwe’s road safety has steadily deteriorated since the 2000s, degenerating into traffic chaos in the 2010s as the economic downturn eroded road maintenance, informal public transport increased and enforcement weakened. Despite the renewed repairs and police efforts, dangerous driving is still very much ingrained.
“The other drivers are no longer patient with us, they run away, they jump illegally, they put pressure on the students so that our students are basically trying to adjust,” he said, before his student navigated through roads where both drivers and pedestrians pay little attention to the rules.
For the student, 19-year-old Winfrida Chipashu, a university accounting major, the streets of Harare are more intimidating than a balance sheet.
“You can’t really compare it to accounting because (in accounting) you have all the concepts,” Chipashu said. “When you are driving in the jungle, you are confused by other people who are not following the rules of the road.”
The roads become more dangerous
The southern African nation’s roads turn deadliest during festive seasons and other holidays, but danger strikes every day, driven mostly by dangerous driving that the government says is an alarming concern.
Zimbabwe has one of the highest road death rates in Africa, with the World Health Organization estimating almost 30 deaths per 100,000 people.
In the streets, the contradictions are strong. Minibus taxis bearing “safety first” signs swerve wildly into pedestrian lanes and oncoming traffic. Toll collectors hang on the doors and in the back of moving vehicles shouting for customers. Sedans jammed with 12 passengers, including in the trunk, defy the limits of five seats.
Authorities say 94% of road accidents in the country of 15 million people are caused by human error. Mobile phone distractions among drivers and pedestrians cause about 10% of deaths, said Munesu Munodawafa, head of the Zimbabwe Road Safety Council.
“This is scary,” Munodawafa said. “For such a small population, those numbers are alarming.”
A regional problem
The Zimbabwe crisis reflects a wider African pattern. Road accidents here kill around 300,000 people every year, around a quarter of the global toll. The continent has the highest fatality rate in the world with 26.6 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to a global average of around 18, according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa. This is despite the continent of 1.5 billion people accounting for around 3% of the global vehicle population.
Road traffic deaths in Africa are also increasing faster than in any other region, with fatalities jumping 17% between 2010 and 2021, according to the World Health Organization’s latest Africa road safety report released in mid-2024.
The WHO links the sudden increase to weak road safety laws and enforcement, reckless driving, and rapid urbanization and motorization. Vehicle registrations in Africa nearly tripled between 2013 and 2021, driven by imported used vehicles and a sharp increase in motorcycles and three-wheelers. Pedestrians, cyclists and riders of two and three wheels account for about half of all fatalities, according to the UN agency.
In Uganda, where unregulated motorbikes dominate transport, reckless overtaking and speeding caused 44.5% of crashes in 2024, police there say, while in neighboring Kenya and across East Africa, frequent accidents on bad roads and dangerous driving fuel repeated calls for tougher road safety rules.
Search for solutions
To increase road safety, police in Zimbabwe recently acquired body cameras and breathalyzers and are pushing for an overhaul of the driver licensing system, including docking points for offenders and revamping driver training programs to highlight the dangers of reckless driving.
“Drivers are not licensed to be killers, they are licensed to practice road safety and safeguard lives on the road but unfortunately this is not the case,” said police spokesperson Paul Nyathi.
For teachers like Muvhevhi, survival became the lesson.
“When we’re teaching our students, it’s no longer a question of just getting a driver’s license,” he said. “We teach them to stay alive despite incorrect actions of other road users.”
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