Govt to support MVA Fund - Tibone

NELSON DIRENG
Correspondent | Thursday February 25, 2010 00:00

Speaking during a familiarisation tour of the Fund's headquarters in Gaborone this week, Tibone said MVAF was one of a few parastatals that would not be merging with other organisations, moving to other ministries, or getting privatised, which made it one of the government's strongest partners.

'So far, other parastatals such as Botswana Savings Bank and the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency are either moving away or merging with other companies,' he said.

The MVAF was an important and unique organization as it dealt with practically everyone, which was why his ministry was working closely with it. 'An accident can occur to anyone at any time and the MVA Fund is there to care for that,' Tibone added

The MVAF had confirmed that the number of accidents in Botswana was on the rise and was higher than in most countries on the continent.

Also speaking at the same event, the Chief Executive Officer, of the MVAF, Cross Kgosidiile, said that they had experienced an increase in the number of claims by people involved in accidents over the past two years. 'Last year, we received a total of 3,217 claims, which was an increase from the years 2007 and 2008 which recorded a total number of 3,082 and 2,945 claims respectively,' Kgosidiile said, noting that poor roads were possible catalyst of accidents.

He called on Tibone to act as an intermediary and help the MVAF interact with the ministry responsible for roads for solutions. 'Botswana roads are narrow and this may be a contributing factor to the problem,' he said.  Yet another factor could be the inexperience of Botswana drivers, he added. 'Road accidents have claimed the lives of important people in society such as parents and valuable workers,' he said.

However, Minister Tibone disagreed that poor roads could be a leading cause of  rising numbers of accidents. 'There are countries in Africa that have poorer road networks than Botswana but still register fewer accidents,' he said. 'This means there is something we aren't doing right as drivers or as a country.'

But he commended the MVAF for educating stakeholders. 'I have observed that the MVA Fund's visibility is on the increase and we would like to encourage them to maintain the momentum,' he said.

Kgosidiile said the MVAF put emphasis on avoiding road accidents completely. 'Our limitations are that the cost of rehabilitating and providing medical care is high,' he said.

The MVAF often contended limited numbers of health and rehabilitation centres, as well as a shortage of health specialists. 

The MVAF currently has a staff complement of 65 in five offices countrywide - in Gaborone, Francistown, Kang, Palapye and Maun.