Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique is launching the pilot phase of the road traffic offence monitoring centre, with a view to reducing the number of accidents, local authorities announced on Monday.
“INATRO [National Road Transport Institute] is currently in the pilot phase of operationalising a traffic offence monitoring centre,” said Claudio Zunguze, the institution’s technical administrator, during the presentation of measures taken against a semi-collective passenger transport driver recently filmed performing dangerous manoeuvres on one of Maputo’s main avenues.
The INATRO official explained that the centre aims to prevent authorities from relying on videos filmed by “well-meaning” individuals in cases of traffic violations, while encouraging the filming of irregular acts, provided they do not distract the driver.
“We would not like to be solely dependent on the goodwill of individual motorists, but we are also seeking technological resources to help us identify situations that jeopardise the safety of road users.
INATRO said that the driver filmed committing irregular manoeuvres was banned from driving for a period of one year and fined an unspecified amount, as it was considered a serious offence.
On 4 December, the Mozambican Minister of Transport and Logistics, João Matlombe, said he wanted “zero tolerance” for offending drivers to prevent road accidents during the festive season.
On 27 November, the Mozambican President warned the police that they must take measures to curb road accidents.
On the same occasion, the Mozambican head of state pointed out that from January to September alone, 408 road accidents were recorded across the country, compared to 459 in 2024, causing 662 deaths, while in the same period in 2024, 555 fatalities were recorded.
The head of state said that these figures show that road accidents are “more deadly” than malaria, which caused 308 hospital deaths in 2024.
Previously, on 10 November, the Minister of Transport and Logistics said that road accidents in Mozambique are more deadly than any disease, calling for greater enforcement and compliance with traffic rules.
“Accidents today are killing more people than any public health disease we have in the country, and that worries us because we think we can prevent them. Therefore, we are suffering quite significant economic losses,” João Matlombe said at the time.
