/ 7 March 2009

Zim’s MDC to meet on Tsvangirai crash

Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party will meet on Saturday to discuss its official position on the car crash in which he was hurt and his wife was killed.

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party will meet on Saturday to discuss its official position on the car accident in which his wife was killed and he was hurt.

MDC’s spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the party’s national executive committee would investigate whether foul play was involved in the accident.

Tsvangirai’s wife, Susan, was killed when a truck crossed into the opposite lane late on Friday and slammed into their vehicle which was driven by a private, not government, driver.

She was thrown out of the car, which overturned and rolled three times, and was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Tsvangirai suffered some head and neck injuries and chest pains, but his condition was stable, Chamisa and Tsvangirai’s family members confirmed.

The head of casualty at the Harare hospital where Tsvangirai was being treated, Dr Douglas Gwatidzo, said the prime minister may be released from the 
hospital on Saturday.

State television showed 
pictures of Tsvangirai in a neck brace, which Gwatidzo said was being
 used to keep him comfortable.

”We might release him today or tomorrow,” Gwatidzo told reporters
 gathered at the hospital.

Ian Makone, a secretary to the prime minister and member of the MDC, said Tsvangirai was ”
devastated by the death of his wife”.


Tsvangirai, who turns 57 on Tuesday, had six children with Susan (50), who was very popular among MDC supporters. They used to chant ”mother, mother” when she appeared at rallies with her husband.

She avoided the political spotlight but stood by Tsvangirai throughout his ordeals as Mugabe’s most determined opponent.

The crash occurred on the outskirts of Harare on
 a decrepit road notorious for accidents. Like many in Zimbabwe, it is
 in poor condition because it has not been maintained.

A United States embassy official, speaking on condition of anonymity because
 the official spokesperson was not immediately available, said on Saturday 
that the truck involved was transporting medicine for Aids patients
 donated by the US government. It was driven by a Zimbabwean 
contracted by the US.

State television said the truck swerved on an uneven stretch of 
road. Tsvangirai’s spokesperson James Maridadi earlier said Tsvangirai’s car sideswiped the truck and rolled at least three times.

The state-run newspaper the Herald reported on Saturday that the two 
other people in Tsvangirai’s car — the driver and a bodyguard — were
 also injured. The paper added the driver and occupants of the truck
 were taken to a police station, but it was unclear whether they had
 been arrested.

Police spokesperson Superintendent Andrew Phiri told the Herald the
 truck may have struck an object on the road before it veered.

The couple had been headed to a weekend rally 
in Tsvangirai’s home region, south of Harare.

President Robert Mugabe spent about an hour at the hospital late
 on Friday. He and other senior aides who also visited did not speak to
 reporters or Tsvangirai supporters gathered outside.

Several world leaders expressed their condolences to Tsvangirai.

”We know and know too well the pain and sorrow that death has brought to bear on you personally, the family and indeed the entire Zimbabwe nation,” South Africa’s President Kgalema Motlanthe said in a statement.

Britain and the US, both supporters of Tsvangirai, sent
 condolences.

Tsvangirai was sworn in on February 11 as 
Zimbabwe’s prime minister in a power-sharing deal meant to end almost a
year of deadly stalemate with Mugabe. The unity government was formed 
under pressure from neighbouring leaders who wanted Zimbabwean leaders 
to turn their attention to a growing humanitarian and economic crisis
 after years of rivalry between Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader, 
and Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980.

Tsvangirai formed the MDC a decade ago.

As it emerged as a serious political challenger, Tsvangirai repeatedly 
faced the wrath of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF. He has been beaten and was once 
nearly thrown from a 10th floor window by suspected government thugs.

Zimbabwe has the world’s highest official inflation rate, a hunger
 crisis that has left most of its people dependent on foreign handouts 
and a cholera epidemic blamed on the collapse of a once-enviable health
and sanitation system. — Reuters, Sapa-AP