Bulawayo (New Ziana) – Drivers from the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) and Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) scooped top awards in the just ended Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) Driver of Year Competition and Awards which were held in Bulawayo.

The Driver of The Year competition and awards is an annual event which was introduced by the TSCZ for bus and truck drivers aimed at improving their skills in order to curb road carnage in line with the National Development Strategy (NDS1) with reference to reducing road crashes, injuries, and fatalities by 25 percent by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030.

Several drivers have participated in the Driver of The Year Competition and have won prizes.

The DOTY competitions were last held in 2018 after which they were disrupted by Covid-19 lockdown.

Following the relaxation of Covid related restrictions, TSCZ has decided to resume competition. The competition involve rigid lorry, articulated truck and bus drivers.

Nqobizita Moyo of BCC was the overall winner of the competition. He also scooped a prize in the Rigid category.

Shadreck Muponda from ZNA was the winner in the Bus Category, while Farai Katsande of the same organization emerged winner in the Articulated category.

Speaking at the prize giving ceremony, TSCZ Managing Director Munesu Munodawafa said there were a total of 176 participants in this year`s finals.

Out of the 176 participants, 169 were males while seven were females.

He bemoaned low participation of female drivers in the competition.

“The representation is not propositional, and I think we need to cast our net wider in trying to achieve gender parity in the next event,” he said.

He appealed to institutions to encourage female drivers to take part in the competition.

“I would like to appeal to institutions and companies to encourage and allow female drivers to take part in the competition,” Munodawafa said.

New Ziana