Stop road bloodbath

Yet another young life of a professional footballer has been tragically cut short on our roads.

This week, we learnt with sadness about the passing of Mogau Tshehla, the Polokwane City defender who was involved in a car accident. Tshehla, 26, will be buried tomorrow in Witbank.

Before him, there were others who died tragically, perhaps an indication that some sort of intervention is required.

The likes of Lesley Manyathela, Richard Henyekane, Cecil Lolo and Mondli Cele all suffered the same fate as Tshehla. Curiously though, it doesn’t seem like anything is being done to end this cycle of our professional sportsmen dying in this manner.

Almost all these cases have a similar ring to them: a footballer travelling late at night and then being involved in a deadly accident.

Of course our country has a high fatality rate on the roads. Statistics released by the Department of Transport last month indicate that 1 527 people died on our roads during the festive season.

Although this was a 12% decrease from the previous year, the numbers still remain too high.

The Premier Soccer League should look into driving a campaign about making our roads safer, in partnership with government authorities.

It would raise the level of consciousness and, more importantly, remind our footballers that they too need to be cautious.

We send our condolences to the Tshehla family, and in particular Mogau’s brothers Percy Tau of Mamelodi Sundowns and Royal Eagles’ Dumisani Tau.