Chiredzi Town is in mourning after residents lost six of
their own in a head-on collision involving a commuter omnibus and a haulage
truck at Maranda turn off at the 166km peg along the Masvingo-Beitbridge
highway yesterday.
Police national spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul
Nyathi said the six are Messrs Reuben Madzingo (24), Tawonga Mazana (28), Farai
(38) and Collen Ernest Chipungu (37), Delight Zireva (31) and Vimbai Beta (41).
Mr Beta was a farm manager at Farmware in Chiredzi.
Information gathered by The Herald shows that five of the
six were business people involved in commodity broking and were travelling to
Polokwane in South Africa on a routine business trip while Madzingo had been
sent by his father to purchase spare parts for their tractor.
Chipungu owned the kombi and was driving. They left
Chiredzi around 3am, and three hours later, the lorry coming north encroached
into their lane, resulting in the vehicles colliding head-on.
Zireva was a newly-wed after tying the knot in April last
year and he left behind a wife who is expecting. Beta lost his wife some years
back in a car accident, and is survived by three children. Madzingo was a
former student of Zimbabwe School of Mines, who was waiting for his final
examinations results, while Mazana was still cutting his teeth in business.
Mr Reuben Madzingo (snr) told The Herald yesterday that he
was still devastated and in shock.
“Reuben is my son and he has just completed his final
examinations at the (Zimbabwe) School of Mines,” he said.
“One of my tractors has not been operational and I had sent
him to procure some spare parts in South Africa. I am the one who called his
colleagues to come and pick him up on their way to South Africa and they left
Chiredzi around 3am.
“I then tried to call Reuben around 8am, and his mobile
phone was no longer reachable. I tried to call the people in South Africa where
he was supposed to buy the spare parts, and they said he had not yet arrived.”
He added: “From there, I started to get worried. I then
received a phone call from someone who knows me saying there has been an
accident that had occurred along Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway and they had seen
my son’s passport.
“I was told that all the people in the kombi had perished.
“It was painful to receive news of their death considering
their ages. All of them were young people whom we were looking to up in future.
It’s so tragic, but I want thank police in Mwenezi for a job well done and the
high level of honesty they displayed.
“They had a substantial amount of money on them, but not
even a single cent was missing from the accident scene.”
One friend of the six who refused to be named said: “I
spoke to Dee around 3am that Tuesday morning and little did I know that we were
doing so for the last time. When I got to work, I started receiving pictures
and news of the accident via WhatsApp.
“I could not believe my eyes. I tried to call Dee and
Ernest, but all their mobile phones were no longer reachable.”
Some of the relatives and friends of the deceased refused
to speak to the media, saying they were still in shock. Herald
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