Member of Parliament (MP) for Mulanje Bale Victor Musowa has proposed for the removal of a category which stipulates that motorcycles be registered with the Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services (DRTSS).

According to Musowa, the proposal is aimed at reducing road accidents involving motorcycles which are on the rise in the country.

He said: “I thought government could have taken a step to remove a category in the Road Traffic and Road Safety Services Act that motorcycles below 150CC can be registered at the Council, and a Council can derive a system of registration.”

Musowa’s suggestion comes as statistics show that there has been an average increase of motorcycle accidents by 90 percent between 2014 and 2021, 342 percent increase in deaths has been recorded during the same period.

Musowa told YFM online that allowing registration of motorcycles at a district council level would assist in more users registering unlike DRTSS where most are not complying.

“The people that are buying these motorcycles live in rural areas, like my constituency, there is no way someone can register a motorcycle in my constituency, it’s not possible,” Musowa said.

But Minister of Transport Jacob Hara has turned down proposal arguing that such decision would bring chaos on the country’s roads.

He said: “We cannot remove the motorcycles in the vehicle designation because those are motorised and they are using the roads that are used by vehicles.

If we remove motorcycles, what it means is that we will open it up, then we will just curse on the road and the carnage would even be more worse.”

According to Hara, what is need to strengthen heavy reinforcement to ensure that there is law and order on the roads.