One year and eight months in prison and an equal fine was the sentence announced recently by Judge Mariza Saiente, of the Judicial Court of Manhiça, in Maputo province, for the driver Carlos Mugaduia, found guilty in the "Tragedy of Maluana" case, a road accident that, in July 2021, killed 34 people.

Some voices think that the penalty could be heavier.

"Our penalties are very lenient, I was hoping for a heavy penalty even to discourage, to be a reference for others, so that they can wake up and have the sense that if they drive or act badly on the roads the penalties that await them are very violent," says analyst Moisés Mabunda.

Association of Victims of Road Accidents (AMVIRO), in the voice of its president, Alexandre Nhamposse, says that this is another sign of the urgency of the revision of penalties for road accidents and the Highway Code.

"We cannot build a society with impunity at the road level, because this will be serious for all of us," Alexandre Nhamposse opined to VOA.

But for Nilton Manjate, from the Bar Association, punishing road misconduct must strictly observe what the law says.

"It could have been a didactic, exemplary sentence, and we could have gone to the extreme in what are the dictates of the law, to educate other drivers," comments the lawyer.

On the other hand, corruption in the training of professional drivers is considered by AMVIRO as one of the evils that lead to high road accidents in the country.

"This aspect is not new as such and concerns us; and we condemn it," says Nhamposse.

However, António Sousa, from the Maputo Driving School, says that it has not been common to report cases of corruption involving driver trainers.

"The problem we have with corruption is that people just talk, when the time comes to present evidence or move forward with a complaint, people just walk away," says Sousa.