Employers call for road accidents to be declared national emergency

THE United Federation of Employers of Zambia (UFEZ) has called on Government to declare road traffic accidents a national emergency, warning that rising fatalities are crippling families and threatening economic productivity.
Speaking at the Special Drivers Safety Workshop and Six-Month Road Safety Study officiated by Labour and Social Security Minister Brenda Tambatamba, UFEZ executive president Humphrey Monde said Zambia must treat road accidents with the same urgency as a national health crisis.
“Over Christmas alone, 224 accidents were recorded, 23 of them fatal, claiming 28 lives. During the New Year period, 136 accidents occurred, with 16 more deaths,” Dr Monde said, citing Zambia Police Service statistics following the festive season.
"These are not statistics. These are fathers, mothers and children.”
He urged Government to mobilise all key institutions including the Ministries of Transport and Home Affairs, the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA), employers, trade unions and civil society to implement a coordinated national emergency plan.
"Declare road traffic accidents a national emergency. Just as we mobilise every resource to fight the health crisis, we must treat this challenge on our roads with the same level of hardness, the same non-sector response and the same unwavering political will," he said.
Dr Monde explained that road accidents were weakening supply chains, increasing insurance costs, disrupting productivity and discouraging investment at a time when Zambia is positioning itself as a regional trade hub.
Meanwhile, Federation of Free Trade Unions of Zambia (FTTUZ) president Kwibisa Muyaywa said drivers remain the backbone of the economy but continue to face poor working conditions, long hours and safety risks.
He cited Statutory Instrument No. 80 of 2016, which regulates driving hours for public service vehicle drivers, saying fatigue and overwork remain major contributors to accidents.
"Without drivers, our stores would be empty, our hospitals would lack medicines and our economic trade would grind to a halt. Yet for too long, these hands that steer the wheels of our development have been treated as spare parts, easily replaced and often ignored," Muyaywa shared.
He also raised concern over attacks on Zambian truck drivers along regional trade routes, including the Democratic Republic of Congo corridor, and called on police to strengthen security for drivers.
Representing the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), president Blake Mulala, director Deluxe Mwansa said road safety must be treated as a shared responsibility among government, employers and workers.
He stressed that decent work includes safe working conditions, regulated rest periods and proper occupational health systems, adding that driver safety should be recognised as a fundamental labour right.
Furthermore, Mwansa said Zambia needs local training in occupational health and occupational medicine so that workers who are injured or fall sick due to their jobs can be properly treated, assessed, rehabilitated and retained in employment.
"We don't have Occupational Health and Safety Institutes...this thing is only done outside the country. So through this forum," he said.
"The Congress will request that consideration be made to extend this faculty in our training institutions in the country, so that we have occupational medicine, to retain the level and extent of the ability of an employee who is involved in an occupational health case to continue working."
The workshop brought together employers, labour unions, policymakers and transport sector stakeholders to discuss findings of a six-month road safety study and propose reforms aimed at reducing accidents and professionalising the transport sector.
Minister Tambatamba is expected to use the recommendations from the study to guide further policy interventions in workplace and road safety.
The Minister that driver safety starts with decent working conditions, social protection and strict enforcement of labour laws.
Kalemba February 19, 2026