Zimbabweans pay tribute to Morgan Tsvangirai’s wife after fatal crash  THOUSANDS OF Zimbabweans have paid tribute to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s wife, who was killed in a car accident on March 6. Susan Tsvangirai, hailed as the ‘mother of the nation’, was buried in Harare on March 10, after dying in a road collision involving a lorry and the 4×4 in which she and her husband were travelling.

CONDOLENCES
Many offered their condolences to Prime Minister Tsvangirai online. “We are so, so sorry about the tragedy which has struck your family. You have had so much to bear and we pray that you and your family will find the love and support to deal with this most devastating loss,’ one family called the McDonalds wrote on website, www.sokawanele.com. ‘Be assured that your loved wife Susan will be remembered by us all for everything she did for her family and for her greater family, we in Zimbabwe.’

Within hours of her death, hundreds reportedly walked miles to the prime minister’s home in Strathaven, a western suburb of the country’s capital, to pay their respects. Others turned up at a rally in Harare to say goodbye. Mrs Tsvangirai was buried in Buhera, the couple’s hometown. That was where the couple had been going when the collision occurred near Beatrice. Local media have said many Zimbabweans are very suspicious about Mrs Tsvangirai’s death, based on the bitter history between her husband and President Robert Mugabe.

INJURED

But the injured prime minister, who got treatment in Bostwana, has said the car crash was an accident. Officials from Tsvangirai’s political party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said they have seen nothing to suggest foul play but would conduct their own investigations. Speaking at Mrs Tsvangirai’s funeral, Mugabe reportedly told mourners “I plead with you to accept it, it’s the hand of God."

He added: “We are doing our best that we create a conducive environment and tell our supporters that the issue of violence must end." As Tsvangirai buried his wife of 31 years, the lorry driver involved in the incident, Chinoona Mwanda, faced a court and pleaded not guilty to a charge of culpable homicide.

His lawyer Chris Mhike said Mwanda pleaded not guilty because he believed he ‘was not in any way negligent’. He is attributing the cause of the accident to the poor state of  the road. “Any other driver driving on that patch of road would have more than likely ended up in the situation that this driver ended up in.”