The daughter of Morgan Tsvangirai, the late Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and leader of the nation’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Vimbai Tsvangirai is currently in a Harare hospital fighting for her life after a car accident that took the lives of 2 MDC activists late last night.
Her car, carrying four passengers, was involved in a head-on collision after the city of Kwekwe, en route to Harare as the occupants returned from the MDC’s candidate debates held in Bulawayo.
Tsvangirai’s campaign manager and organizing secretary for her constituency, Glen View South, Paul Rakanda and her late mother’s cousin Tafadzwa Munzwa were trapped in the vehicle for over an hour before an ambulance and police arrived. According to party officials, the 2 died from their injuries.
An ambulance rushed Tsvangirai to hospital, where she is said to be in a stable condition.
“The president (Nelson Chamisa) and the MDC family is devastated. There was a head-on collision just after Kwekwe. Two people have unfortunately passed away.”
He further went on to say;
“We have lost two committed cadres, two pillars of the party. It’s painful, it strikes at the heart. We pray for the strength of the families, and to everyone.”
“Vimbai Tsvangirai is in a stable condition. She has been taken to the
Avenues Clinic, Harare, while the other passenger has been discharged. We are praying, and we ask the nation to join us in prayer that the day will not get more tragic,” said MDC spokesman, Jacob Mafume.
This accident is a continuation of a trail of tragedy that continues to rock the Tsvangirai family.
The life of Vimbai Tsvangirai’s mother, Susan Tsvangirai was taken at the age of 50 in a head-on collision on 6 March 2009 when a truck belonging to the U.S. aid agency, United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) sideswiped the vehicle she was traveling in with her husband, who was Prime Minister at the time.
The vehicle rolled over three times, and Susan Tsvangirai was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital in Beatrice. Morgan Tsvangirai was able to escape with minor bruises and scratches.
A statement issued by the MDC at the time of this accident said:
“We suspect that this is not a genuine accident and we appeal to Zimbabweans in South Africa to remain calm as facts continue to surface. We strongly believe that these are the evil acts of a few individuals bent on derailing the progress of the inclusive government. We are, however, alive to the fact that a lot of Robert Mugabe’s opponents died in suspicious road accidents involving army trucks.”
Morgan Tsvangirai, however, said he believed that what happened was a genuine accident.
Vimbai Tsvangirai’s father, Morgan Tsvangirai, died after a painful fight with colon cancer on 14 February 2018, at the age of 65. However, exiled MDC founder and activist, Elliot Pfebve shared a statement expressing his suspicions that there was more to his demise.
“(Morgan) Tsvangirai may have been poisoned, in the same way (Emmerson) Mnangagwa was poisoned.
In 2014, I received a tip-off that Zanu PF bought a poisonous metal isotope from Russia destined to eradicate opposition leadership. It is similar to Polonium 210 which killed Alexander Litvinenko in London, but a (slower) reactive poison than Polonium 210 that takes time to kill its victim by inducing cancer”, said Pfebve.
Vimbai Tsvangirai has continued her family legacy by remaining visible and active in both the opposition party MDC and in government as an MP.
As the nation continues to pray for her, the hopes of many are that her speedy recovery will change her family’s tragedy-filled narrative.