Gwanda (Ilanga -New Ziana) Zimbabwe will soon adopt international standards on road signs, a senior official has said.

National Road Safety Council of Zimbabwe acting director of operations Ernest Muchena told delegates at a road carnage campaign dinner where the governments of Zimbabwe and South Africa shared notes on ways to avoid road accidents that the country would soon be in line with international standards on road signs.

“We share a lot with South Africa and the continent at large. You will find out that our roads are almost similar hence the road signs must be the same,” he said.

“By 31 December 2025 you will see a change on our roads. We will have removed all the old road signs. The new signs will be pictorial in nature because we are moving away from using words. This allow those drivers who do not use English, suppose you are Portuguese or French you will be able to apply the same traffic rules and we reduce the carnage on our roads,” he said.

Muchemwa urged the two local authorities Gwanda Rural District Council and Gwanda Town Council to value the importance of road signs.

Several road signs within the two local authorities have fallen down while others are not even in place thereby giving motorist’s torrid times to determine right of way.

It was also noted that most of the accidents during the festive season occurred from the 14th of December up to the first week of January.

An expert from the South African Road Accident Fund, Manager of Statistics and Reporting Road Safety Ndrabi Mahlangu noted that most accidents outside the festive season and Easter holidays happened during weekends.

“Statistics have revealed that most of the accidents occur between Friday and Sunday which is when most drivers travel to different destinations,” he said.

“It has been noticed that most of these accidents are caused by excitement and drinking and driving.”

New Ziana