FIRST Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa was involved in another
serious accident yesterday, but escaped unhurt when her vehicle overturned
after being rammed into by another motorist along the Harare-Bindura highway,
the Daily News reports.
This comes after the first lady lost one of her close aides
in another major accident in Mt Darwin in April this year.
Presidential
spokesperson George Charamba confirmed yesterday’s accident to the Daily News
last night, saying this had allegedly been caused by a driver who panicked upon
meeting the first lady’s convoy, resulting in him ramming into her vehicle,
causing it to overturn.
“Yes there was a traffic incident in the morning where a
motorist panicked upon seeing the first lady’s convoy … and he rammed into the
First Lady’s vehicle on the driver’s side.
“There were no injuries even though the car was damaged.
The First Lady is fine and so is her driver,” he said.
Charamba also
dismissed social media speculation that gunshots had been fired at the accident
scene — telling the Daily News that “nothing of that sort took place during or
after the crash”.
Yesterday’s accident occurred as Zimbabwe is suffering from
the triple whammy of the long-running economic crisis, the negative effects of
the global coronavirus pandemic and the severe regional drought, which has left
more than half of the population facing starvation.
This has seen the first lady continuing with her charity
work, notwithstanding the coronavirus lockdown — following widespread reports
of starvation among many impoverished communities nationally.
In April this year, her security aides were involved in a
fatal accident in Mashonaland Central while on their way to Muzarabani, where
the first lady intended to donate foodstuffs to starving families there.
The first lady, who was in the same convoy, was not in the
car which rolled and claimed the life of one of her aides then, Albert Vunganai
— and which left several others seriously injured.
Well-placed sources told the Daily News that the fatal
accident had caught everyone by surprise, as the first lady’s security details
— who were travelling in a Toyota Hilux behind her — were not speeding.
“They were doing between 20km/hour and 40 km/hour. The gap
between their car and the first lady was about 500 metres.
“When they tried to speed up a little bit to narrow the
gap, their car veered off the road. The driver tried to control the car and
pull it back onto the road, but it rolled,” one source said then.
“All this time, the first lady had come out of her car and
was watching the entire tragic development. She is in terrible shock and is
devastated.
“She regarded those boys as her children and the accident
has left her extremely traumatised and upset,” another source told the Daily
News further at the time. Daily News
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