Zimbabwe’s prime minister has left the country for medical treatment after he was injured in a car crash that killed his wife, state media reported on Sunday. A party official said Morgan Tsvangirai was in
Botswana.
State radio and the government-run Sunday Mail said Tsvangirai left on Saturday soon after being released from the Harare hospital where he had been treated after his car collided on Friday with a truck carrying US aid.
The paper quoted MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa as saying Tsvangirai left after consultations with his family, party and government ”for further medical examination and attention just to make sure that we have exercised due diligence. We are not leaving any medical stone unturned.”
Officials of his party refused to say publicly where he had gone, but an official of Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press it was
neighbouring Botswana, where Tsvangirai spent months last year, fearing for his life in his homeland.
Botswana officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Botswana President Seretse Ian Khama has been one of the few African leaders to openly criticise Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980 and is accused of destroying its economy and trampling on democratic and human
rights.
After a dispute over presidential elections nearly a year ago and months of state-sponsored violence against MDC members and independent political activists, Tsvangirai and Mugabe formed a coalition
government last month. But the union has been rocky from the start.
Tsvangirai’s party called on Saturday for an investigation into the crash, and said it could have been avoided had Tsvangirai had the kind of motorcade that travels with Mugabe. Since becoming prime minister,
Tsvangirai usually travels in a convoy of four or five cars with his own and government guards, while Mugabe travels with dozens of cars and motorcycles.
Tsvangirai was headed to a weekend rally in his home region when the accident occurred. State television said the truck swerved on an uneven and notoriously dangerous road on the outskirts of Harare.
Tsvangirai’s spokesperson said the car carrying the prime minister, his wife, a driver and a bodyguard sideswiped the truck and rolled at least three times.
Poor maintenance has left many roads in Zimbabwe in dangerous condition. Stretches of the main, heavily travelled road have been reduced to one lane.
Susan Tsvangirai (50) was killed. The driver and the bodyguard were injured, but not seriously. Dr Douglas Gwatidzo, head of casualty at the Harare hospital where Tsvangirai was treated, said the prime minister had head injuries and chest pains.
The Tsvangirais, who married in 1978 and had three daughters and three sons, often went together to political events, but Susan
Tsvangirai did not have a prominent public role.
Tsvangirai, who turns 57 on Tuesday, formed the MDC a decade ago. As it emerged as a serious political challenger, Tsvangirai repeatedly faced the wrath of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party. 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. – Sapa-AP