'Rather spend the money upgrading existing roads'
EP Van Rooyen . . . 'We need to provide the means for heavily loaded vehicles to keep to the left and allow faster
traffic to pass'
Leonard Neill
DON'T BUILD new roads to suit taxis and government vehicles. Instead, in the interests of safety, improve the existing highways with extra lanes to accommodate heavy traffic and provide safe passing sections for the average motorist.
This call comes from the doyen of Namibia's transport operators, E P van Rooyen of Wesbank Transport in Walvis Bay, who is incensed at an announcement that his government is considering building a new road from the coast to Windhoek.
"It means they will be ploughing their way through desert and mountains to build it, and that seems so unnecessary," he said. "We've had consulting engineers in Walvis Bay investigating matters, so it seems that the authorities are serious.
"But why spend this type of money when there is already a good road from here and Swakopmund to the capital. What it needs is for that road to be doubled. That is what you call development. That is providing means for heavily loaded vehicles to keep to the left and allow faster traffic to pass. Right now I appreciate, as a transport operator, that the trucks carrying vital equipment like mining materials and moving slowly can be a hindrance to the average motorist.
"But doesn't it make more sense to use far less capital by merely expanding the width of existing roads, rather than spending fortunes on building new ones?"
Another gripe Van Rooyen has at present is the practice of shippers in other countries overloading trucks which then have to proceed into Namibia to reach development areas or harbours.
"There is a weighbridge at the Namibian border from Botswana, where every vehicle is weighed. If any are overweight, the drivers are taken into custody and the truck impounded until bail is paid and a court date is set.
"We are among the Namibian transport operators who have faced this obstacle. The drivers go to jail even though they haven't even moved across Namibian territory. Yet it isn't the driver who is the guilty party. He waits for his truck to be loaded and then proceeds on his way. He is unaware of the overweight load which the cargo owner has placed behind him.
"There are many guilty parties at the point of loading who take advantage of this fact, yet they go free. We don't contravene the laws with any intention whatsoever, yet we are the ones who suffer not only in time lost but in payment of fines."
