“Ana a Dad” on the road

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Vehicle

…Police where thy at thee

Number plates give unique identification to vehicles in some situations but that cannot happen when a vehicle’s number plate is “Ana a Dad”.

Drivers in hit and run accidents are traced using number plates that help to identify the owner of the vehicle.

Vehicle
A vehicle with “Ana Achepa” number plate parked in Limbe near Auction floors floors

Each vehicle has its unique identification through number plates in the world that may be at national or regional level.

However with months to go for Malawi to hold its general elections, the country has witnessed number plates that gives a problem when it comes to identification.

Several vehicles are seen in the cities bearing similar number characters on their number plates making it hard to identify the vehicles in case of accidents.

Spot-checks in Blantyre revealed several vehicle number plates written “Ana A dad” (Dad’s Children), “Ana Achepa”, Ana a Amayi (mum’s children).

These number plates are seen to be in praise of political leaders ahead of 2019 general elections to be held in the country.

But one wonders, how can such vehicles be identified? What if a car with such number plate hits a pedestrian, will eyewitness report that “Ana adad” vehicle has hit a person and fled?

When these questions reflected in our mind, we sought help from the Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services through its spokesperson Angelica Makwecha to explain on the matter.

However, Makwecha kept ignoring picking our calls despite several attempts to talk to her.

Meanwhile, the vehicles pass through roadblocks mounted in the cities of Malawi without authorities taking action as if it is not illegal to have such number plates on the road.