Khutsi Malala is running for your life
TUT Radio host puts his feet where his mouth is to raise awareness about the reckless behaviour of young drivers.
|||Pretoria - Young people wear seatbelts in the city but as soon as they reach the township they take them off and reckless driving begins.
This is according to TUT Radio's Khutsi Malala, 28, who has decided to raise awareness about the reckless behaviour of young drivers, urging them to wear their seatbelts.
“We just want to make sure young people wear their seatbelts,” he said. “It’s a lifestyle issue. They’ll drive around town wearing their seatbelts because they know there are police there but as soon as they get to the townships they unbuckle,” Malala said.
He said that besides not wearing their seatbelts, young people also begin driving recklessly and want to show off their cars to people in the townships.
This is an issue close to Malala’s heart as he lost his brother and best friend in car accidents within a year of each other.
Their lives could possibly have been saved had they been wearing seatbelts, he said. His best friend was ejected from the car through the front windscreen which showed he had not been wearing a seatbelt.
Malala and David Phiri, 39, partnered in a race to raise awareness on the need to use seatbelts. Starting from the Tshwane Events Centre in the city centre at 6.45am on Saturday morning, Malala and friends ran 35 kilomtres to Soshanguve.
Phiri, a businessman, said he had also lost his brother five years ago in a car crash and it was after his own accident two months ago that he decided to join forces with Malala to raise awareness on the need to wear seatbelts, especially among the youth.
He said his brother suffered fatal injuries but probably would have survived the accident had he been wearing a seatbelt.
“Remembering the death of my brother and remembering my car accident, I decided to join hands with Khutsi on this project, he said.
Their second annual event will, according to Phiri and Malala, become a nationwide event as they have sponsors to help them take the race to every province in South Africa.
Malala, a former street racer, said he hoped the awareness campaign would open people’s minds.
“Some people have a problem with letting go of their addictions, “ he said. “I used to do drag racing and it was difficult for me to stop but I had to because of these accidents in which my brother and best friend were killed.”
Pretoria News