The Minister of Works and Transport, Veikko Nekundi, has appealed to local motorists to exercise caution to prevent fatal road accidents, emphasising that the nation's population should be growing, not declining, to prevent fatal crashes.

Speaking at the official opening of the 10th Annual Road Safety Conference held at Swakopmund, Nekundi said the time for talk is over and that action must now take priority.

Nekundi questioned what tangible results had come from the past nine conferences, given the resources and expertise invested over the past years.

He said the country's annual road safety gatherings had failed to produce results. 

He urged stakeholders to shift from producing papers and reports to real execution, stressing that saving lives on Namibia's roads must be the top priority.

"We are so courageous as Namibians to kill each other on the road. That means people are dying more, so where are we going after a few years? We have no nation. We must be the opposite: produce more bodies and minimise death on the road, and then we have a population that is growing. I'm not relying on you to start tomorrow, but I'm just saying we must be focused and decisive to curb death rates as a result of road crashes."

He instructed the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund and National Road Safety Council to table new proposals before Parliament early next year.

Nekundi has issued a strong warning to agencies responsible for road safety, saying he will fire officials who fail to deliver concrete action to curb rising road fatalities.

Among the other measures proposed were the mandatory defensive driving courses for all professional drivers, probationary periods for new licence holders, compulsory dashcams in all vehicles, and reflective tagging of livestock for night visibility.