Thomas: Public roads are not shebeens and cuca shops

Leader of the Body of Christ Party (BCP) Festus Thomas has called for an urgent parliamentary investigation into rising road crashes and general alcohol consumption on public roads.

He said many of the country’s roads have become havens for drunk drivers.

Moving his motion in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Thomas said the lives of pedestrians and innocent motorists are constantly in danger from intoxicated drivers who have made it a habit to “turn national public roads into extensions of bars, shebeens and cuca shops”.

“The blood of our people continues to spill on our roads. The recent tragedy of Outapi is not isolated. It is a national emergency. A public road is a shared national asset for mobility, economic activity and the safe passage [of people]. It is not an extension of a bar, a shebeen or a cuca shop. When a citizen walks in the middle of the street or a road, dazed or wielding a knife, intoxicated, holding an open bottle, he or she endangers himself and the motorists ahead,” said the lawmaker.

He continued: “Some will argue this is a matter of personal freedom, but no freedom can be exercised at the expense of another person’s right to life. Article 6 of the Constitution is clear. Lastly, this motion seeks to restore dignity, safety on our roads and seeks to protect families”. Between January and June this year, the MVA Fund reported 1 333 crashes, 2 273 injuries and 229 fatalities.

While this represented a slight single-digit decline compared to the same period in 2025, authorities warned that the baseline death toll is still unacceptably high.

By August, data rose to 1 747 crashes and 279 deaths, hitting 304 deaths by the end of that month as traffic volumes spiked around school holidays and national commemorations.

A significant portion of severe crashes is caused by drivers making poor choices on major corridors, such as attempting to overtake multiple long-haul trucks simultaneously.

This frequently leads to catastrophic head-on collisions.

Due to Namibia’s status as a logistics hub connecting the port of Walvis Bay via strategic transnational corridors, commercial truck traffic is dense.

Between January and mid-September alone, 112 truck-involved crashes claimed 48 lives, with nearly 60% of those deaths concentrated in the heavy-freight routes of the Erongo and Otjozondjupa regions.

Pedestrian-related accidents spiked significantly in the first half of the year, tracking a 29% increase in pedestrian fatalities compared to the prior year.

Over 489 pedestrian accidents occurred in just six months, with urban areas, particularly Windhoek, registering the highest frequency.

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