Making the roads safer for learners

First National Bank and Wesbank Namibia have joined hands with the Road Safety Forum to make the roads a safer place for learners in Namibia.
Empowering to protect
Jeanette Diergaardt
On 3 March First National Bank Namibia (FNB) and Wesbank donated scholar patrol equipment and apparel to Pionierspark Primary School, Suiderhof Primary School and Delta School Windhoek in co-operation with the Road Safety Forum.

According to Horst Heimstadt, the chief executive officer of the Road Safety Forum, there are 58 primary schools in Windhoek and only seven have an active scholar patrol. He added that it can cost up to N$300 000 for a school to set up the necessary measures to keep learners safe on the roads.

Besides the cost that is keeping a lot of schools from establishing scholar patrol groups, if a school is not legally covered in case an accident happens, a scholar patrol cannot be set up.

FNB is an active partner in the safekeeping of learners in Namibia and has donated equipment and apparel worth N$50 000. During the course of the year a second donation will be given to an additional three schools. The FNB team will be donating more towards scholar patrols in Namibia in the future.

“We wish to keep every single Namibian child safe on our roads,” said Elmarie Cilliers, the head of FNB Secured Lending and Wesbank. Cilliers challenged other corporate companies and banks in Namibia to further assist with the safekeeping of children on the roads because of the great for establishing working scholar patrols.

Heimstadt said setting up a scholar patrol at schools is not easy. Speed-calming measures are needed in the streets around schools before a scholar patrol can be set up. According to Heimstadt, it costs approximately N$18 000, depending on the width of the street, to install one speed bump. Heimstadt said the Road Safety Forum works closely with the City of Windhoek and they managed to secure international funding to develop the streets at the Moses Van der Bijl and AI Steenkamp schools.

“Pedestrian killings amount to approximately 24% and half of those are children,” said Hileni Tjivikua, the managing director of the Automobile Association of Namibia. “When we are not investing in road safety, we are giving a certificate of death to our people,” Tjivikua said, emphasising the need for investing in road safety.