Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
THERE was no foul play in the accident that led to injuries that resulted in the death of the late MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai’s daughter, Vimbai Tsvangirai-Java, a survivor has said.
Mrs Tsvangirai-Java, who was Member of Parliament for Glen View South in Harare, last week succumbed to injuries she sustained in a head-on collision near Truckers Inn in Kwekwe last month. She was driving with colleagues from Bulawayo, where they had gone for a party caucus meeting.
Her campaign manager and organising secretary for her Glen View South constituency, Paul Rukanda, and Tafadzwa Mundwa, her late mother Susan’s cousin, succumbed to injuries sustained in the accident after they remained trapped in the vehicle for over an hour before emergency services could be secured. Tsvangirai-Java was buried last week at Glen Forest Cemetery.
In an interview, Mr Melody Matavire, an entrepreneur who also survived the horror crash that has now claimed four people said he believed the accident was caused by negligence on the part of the driver of a Mazda 626. That is contrary to reports in some sections of the private media that the passengers in the vehicle were members of the military intelligence. The private media had earlier insinuated that there was foul play claiming that soldiers were involved in Tsvangirai-Java’s death.
“I boarded a Mazda 626 in Harare going to Gweru. I was the first passenger and we picked up two other people on our way. Initially I was not aware the driver was a soldier because he was in civilian clothes. The accident was basically due to negligence of our driver. What happened is that there was a truck in front of us together with two other cars. The truck was moving slowly and the two cars ahead of us overtook the truck and we were behind them. When we were about to finish overtaking, the driver noticed that there was an oncoming vehicle and the two cars collided head on. There was no foul play. He (driver) also died the following morning due to internal injuries. It doesn’t look deliberate and calculated from the way I saw it,” he said.
Mr Matavire’s narration suits police reports that the accident was a result of an overtaking error by the driver of a Mazda who was driving towards Kwekwe.