Morgan Tsvangirai's wife dies in car crash

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Zimbabwe PM's wife dies in crash 

The wife of Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been killed in a car crash in which he was also slightly hurt, party officials say.

Susan Tsvangirai was travelling with her husband south of Harare when their vehicle was in collision with a lorry.

Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, formed a unity government with President Robert Mugabe last month.

Mr Mugabe and his wife have visited his former long-term rival in hospital.

Speaking outside the private clinic in Harare, Mr Tsvangirai's spokesman James Maridadi said of the prime minister: "I saw him. I spoke to him. He walked from the vehicle that brought him to hospital, he is fine."



Robert Mugabe visits the clinic where Morgan Tsvangirai is being treated
Finance Minister Tendai Biti, a senior MDC official, also told reporters that Mr Tsvangirai was "stable", adding that doctors would give further details in due course.
State television reported that the prime minister, who will turn 57 next week, had suffered some injuries to his head and neck.

The report quoted police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena as saying that a lorry carrying freight had crossed into the lane in which Mr Tsvangirai's 4x4 was travelling and had side-swiped his vehicle, causing it to roll over three times.

The prime minister was on his way to his rural home in Buhera, where he planned to hold a weekend rally, when the crash occurred near Beatrice at about 1600 local time (1400 GMT).

The AFP quoted an MDC minister as saying the driver of the lorry had been asleep at the wheel.

 
The BBC's Peter Biles in Johannesburg says that given the fierce rivalry between Zimbabwe's political parties, there will - inevitably - be speculation about the cause of this crash.

So far, though, officials of Mr Tsvangirai's MDC party have said nothing to suggest that there may have been foul play, our correspondent says.

All Zimbabwe's roads are in a poor state of repair, after years of neglect and the collapse of the country's infrastructure, he adds.

'Source of strength'

The crash comes just two days after Mr Tsvangirai delivered his maiden speech to parliament after being sworn in as prime minister in Zimbabwe's power-sharing government.

  It is a very sad day for me and for all Zimbabweans, whether they be at home or abroad

Thabitha Khumalo
MP for the MDC
He and his wife Susan, who married in 1978, had six children.

Thabitha Khumalo, a member of parliament for the MDC who is in Scotland for an international women's conference, told the BBC that the loss of Mrs Tsvangirai, whom she had known well, was a "huge blow" for the country.

"It is a very sad day for me and for all Zimbabweans, whether they be at home or abroad. She was a mother figure for the whole nation," she said.

"Few people knew about her work. Whenever they saw her she was accompanying her husband to court or to vote, but very few people knew she played a very crucial role behind closed doors...

"She was a pillar of strength to [her husband]. In a struggle like his, you need someone to lean on and she was always there for him."



A look at the important role Susan Tsvangirai played in her husband's life
The BBC's Andrew Harding in Johannesburg says that Mrs Tsvangirai was very discreet and stayed out of the limelight, but was a very important part of her husband's life.

She was a great source of strength to her husband when in the past he was charged with treason and assaulted for his opposition to Mr Mugabe, and sat through all his treason trial, our correspondent says.

She also made a point of visiting MDC members who were jailed while the party was in opposition, he adds.

Her death comes at a very challenging time for the fledgling power-sharing government, our correspondent says, and will only make matters more complicated.

Mr Tsvangirai still relied on his own security teams and used his own convoys when he travelled, he adds, in a sign that he was not entirely comfortable with the security provided by the new government.

Tense relations

The UK's Foreign Office expressed "deep sadness" at the news of Mrs Tsvangirai's death.

"We are deeply saddened to hear news of Susan Tsvangirai's death and we offer our condolences," a spokeswoman said. "We are monitoring the situation closely."

Relations between the MDC and Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party remain tense, with MDC ministerial nominee Roy Bennett still in custody, accused of links to an alleged plot to kill Mr Mugabe.

The MDC says the arrest - which happened on the day MDC ministers joined the power-sharing government - is a political manoeuvre by hard-line supporters of Mr Mugabe to destabilise the unity administration.

A magistrate who ordered the release of Mr Bennett was arrested on Friday.

Hard to know what to make of that one. Seems like a big coincidence. Brings the adage about lying down with dogs and getting up with fleas to mind.

[Hurler on the Bitch]

  I think that in hindsight, the word 'accident' will be discounted ........................... indeed absolute shite may apply to this

[Minder]

Was Mugabe driving the lorry?!

[ludermor]

You dont think its a tiny bit suss?

[Minder]

Surprise surprise.............


Tsvangirai crash cause questioned 

Early reports from an investigation by Zimbabwe's MDC suggest that a car crash which killed PM Morgan Tsvangirai's wife may not have been accidental.

Senior MDC officials told the BBC that investigators were questioning the cause of the March crash, in which Mr Tsvangirai was injured.

At first, Mr Tsvangirai said he thought the crash had been an accident.

The MDC, formerly in opposition, entered a power-sharing agreement with President Robert Mugabe in February.

But the evidence which has so far come to light in the MDC investigation leads senior MDC officials to believe that the whole affair was highly questionable, says the BBC's John Simpson, who has been in Zimbabwe.

The car carrying Mr Tsvangirai and his wife was hit by a lorry on a main road south of Harare.

US embassy officials say the lorry belonged to a partner organisation of the US government aid agency USAID.

Mr Tsvangirai's car was accompanied by two cars provided by the government, and driven by men from Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation, which is loyal to President Mugabe. One car led the way, the other followed Mr Tsvangirai.


Morgan and Susan Tsvangirai had been married for 31 years
The MDC sources say the lorry involved in the crash sideswiped Mr Tsvangirai's car, hitting the rear offside.

The car veered across the road and landed in the bush on the far side, upside down. Mrs Tsvangirai was thrown out and killed, and her husband was injured.

The MDC stands to gain hugely in political terms, our correspondent says, if it can prove that it was all a deliberate attempt to kill Mr Tsvangirai soon after he had entered the power-sharing agreement, something which Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party seems to regard as a potential threat to its position.

But the MDC officials pointed out that the apparently deliberate deaths of senior politicians who have been seen as a threat to the Zanu-PF leadership are nothing new.

At least two have died in highly suspicious road accidents in the past.

[Diet Coke]

They didn't happen to pass a "grassy knoll" did they?