By Thobekile Khumalo
Government has collaborated with Midlands State University in the translation of the Highway code into the country’s 16 official languages an initiative that is expected to be completed soon.
The Highway code is being translated into Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, sign language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda and Xhosa.
Minority groups in the country are set to benefit from this initiative especially those living in the rural areas who are disadvantaged by the current English highway code.
This was revealed by Transport and Infrastructural Development, Minister Felix Mhona during Parliament proceedings.
“As a ministry we are still working on translating the highway code working closely with Midlands State University. No one should be left behind and thus every person should be able to get a driver’s license in order to reduce the number of accidents happening across the country,” he said.
He added that once they are done people will be able to learn and write for provisional licenses in their respective languages. He also said that those who are computer illiterate are also accommodated as they can visit their nearest Vehicle Inspecting Department (VID) to register to write manually.
This initiative comes at a time when the ministry is seized with changing of road signs used in the country to match the Southern Africa Developing Countries (SADC) standards of road signs.
