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Officials from the Road Accident Fund (RAF) hosted a Drivers Wellness Programme recently in one of the Taxi Ranks in Mthatha, with the aim of assisting taxi drivers to know about their health.
According to the Road Safety Manager for Road Accident Fund, Thabo Makwela, they were promoting their drivers’ awareness programme.
He said statistics show that commercial truck drivers, taxis and buses pose a greater risk and are prone to mass accidents, which is a liability for the RAF. He said that they were assisting taxi drivers who are driving local and long distances.
“The programme itself is looking at the health aspect of the drivers. We came here with our mobile bus which has a clinic and optometrist. In the clinic we check drivers for cholesterol, iron, high blood pressure and diabetes,” said Makwela.
He added that during 2020, in the peak of COVID-19, they saw thousands of people dying. He said most of them died because they had co-morbidities. Makwela said they were applying the same principle in the road safety space, that if the drivers have high blood pressure, for instance, they are at high risk of sleeping while driving.
“If they have diabetes that they do not know about they also have a high chance of sleeping or being affected, while they are driving. We want to assist them so that they can know about their health. If there is a problem, they are given referral letters to hospitals and those who have medical aid to visit their doctors.”
He confirmed that the second part, the optometry, is where they tested eyes. He said those who were found with visual challenges were issued with spectacles free.
Makwela said they have lot of professional drivers who could not see properly; by assisting them to wear spectacles it means they will be able to see further and clearly.
“If your vision is clearer, it means you will be able to avoid accidents that would have happened if you were not wearing your spectacles.”
He said that they also visited Bizana and now will visit East London. He said that they are working together with the Department of Transport, who are assisting them about areas they could visit. One of the drivers from Border Alliance, Silulami Tsawe, said this programme assisted them a lot, because they did not have time to go for check-ups in clinics.
“We thank them for bringing it here. We are advising other drivers to go and check their health status so that they should know what is happening, “ said Tsawe.
He added that they hope the officials from RAF will keep on visiting them.
