/ 27 May 2001

ZIM CABINET MINISTER DIES IN CAR CRASH

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe has cancelled his trip to Jakarta for the G-15 summit of developing nations after one of his top ministers died in a car crash, the state-run Sunday Mail reported. Mugabe was due to leave on Sunday for the May 30-31 summit in Indonesia. He cancelled the trip after defense minister Moven Mahachi (53) died in a car wreck on Saturday near the eastern Zimbabwean town of Nyanga, a popular holiday spot. Mahachi was the second government minister to die in a car wreck in the space of less than a month. On April 28, gender and employment creation minister Border Gezi died in a crash in the south of the country. Mahachi had been in government since independence in 1980, and had since held several portfolios.