It was only last month that Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, as part of a coalition government with President Robert Mugabe, after two disputed elections and months of negotiations.
The terrible news today is that the new Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, has been injured in a motor vehicle accident, and his lovely wife of 30 years, Susan, was killed.
Our condolences go out to the family. 
The accident occurred 60 km outside of Harare, when a truck veered into his car, causing it to turn over three times. The initial reports were that the driver fell asleep at the wheel.
Or was he asleep?
Photo AFP from AlJezeerah website.
AlJezeerah reports:
Haru Mutasa, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Nairobi, Kenya, said that Tsvangirai’s car was travelling as part of a convoy at the time of the crash.
“People are wondering how this could happen if he were travelling in a convoy. Why was his car the only one apparently damaged?” she said…
The UKTelegraph also mentions that many Zimbabweans, both locals and among the diaspora, also are wondering about the official story. There have been at least three assasination attempts on Tsvangirai’s life in the past, and several MDC officials have been killed in car accidents.
Now, it is entirely possible that it was merely a car accident, with a truck driver falling asleep at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. When I lived in Africa, I was in a major “rollover” accident caused by faulty tires, and my mother’s car was broadsided by another car who skidded on a turn. We also had several other missionaries/NGO workers killed or injured in accidents.
The accidents occur due to faulty maintenance, “counterfeit” parts that fail, misjudgement from lack of experience driving, and of course falling asleep (in Zimbabwe, many of the major highways are straight, boring, with few landmarks, leading to sleepiness and slowness in reflexes when something does go wrong).
So my guess is that it was indeed an unfortunate accident.
On the other hand, political assassinations are not unknown in Africa, and right now, several MDC members have been jailed, including Roy Bennett, a member of Mr. Tsvangirai’s cabinet.
Until Mr. Tsvangirai is well enough to talk to the press, rumors will continue, and civil unrest is a real threat to destablize a country that already faces cholera and economic collapse.
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Nancy Reyes is a retired physician living in the rural Philippines. She writes on Zimbabwe at Makaipablog.
3 users commented in " Zimbabwe PM injured in “accident” "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackTruth is the roads in Zimbabwe are in a terrible condition, with huge pot holes, wrecked tar edges etc… there are no longer any straight boring stretches of road that you remember… so there is no way a driver could be asleep or falling asleep. You have to keep your eyes glued to the road to avoid the pot holes. There’s an old joke in Zim that if you see someone driving straight you know he’s drunk!
I doubt there is one Zimbabwean, whether MDC supporter or Mugabe supporter, who doesn’t think this is another organised assassination.
when I worked there there were few pot hole but the roads were straight in that area.
And my take is that it was an assasination,, but car accidents are so common that I can’t say that in an article
An investigation will show that it is the CFU who were trying to get rid of Tsvangirai before sanctions were lifted.
Did Obama’s administration know about this? Or the bankers that he works for?
Truth will come out eventually.
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