Good evening. Monday was another tragic day on Mozambique’s roads: in less than 100km between Maputo and Gaza, 35 people lost their lives in the space of an hour on Monday morning. It is no exaggeration to say the slaughter on the roads is worse than the violence in Cabo Delgado, where almost every day Mozambicans are also killed by the regional branch of the Islamic State.
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As always, the authorities trotted out the usual excuses: speeding, violations of traffic laws, breaches of the ban on passenger vehicles circulating at night. And because it is winter, heavy fog was blamed too, further complicating driving conditions. Convenient explanations — but far from the whole story.
Take the minibus (or ‘chapa’) that crashed near the village of 3 de Fevereiro. On a wide, well-paved stretch of road, it skidded off a bridge into a river, killing 24 people. The vehicle had a legal capacity of 15 passengers, but was carrying 27. Minutes earlier it had passed through the Incoloane police checkpoint, where every ‘chapa’ and truck is supposedly inspected. Nothing irregular was detected — not the night-time journey, not the excess passengers, not the fact that the driver lacked the proper licence.
