A SOMBRE mood permeated Ngaone Village of Chipinge district
where the remains of four Zimbabwean family members, who were killed in a road
accident in South Africa, were finally interred at their rural homestead on
Wednesday.
Godfrey Tonde Sithole, his wife Faith Mutisi, their two
daughters Shalom and Shekina, died on the spot when their fairly new car, a
Toyota Fortuner, was involved in a head-on collision with a Porsche Cayenne on
the N11 highway near Modelkloof in South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal Province on
October 12.
There was no body viewing rite as the dead were burnt
beyond recognition. Apparently, Sithole and his family were coming from Ngaone
Village where they had gone for a week-long visit.
However, news of the Sithole family’s fatal accident was
broken to some of their relatives through social media before official channels
could inform them.
His cousin Cleopas Mlambo said: “I first saw their pictures
and a caption on a Whatsapp group stating that they had been involved in an
accident. I was so disturbed and reached out to my brother who was also not
aware. That was some hours after it had happened. We then got official
communication from South Africa through our relatives also based in the same
country the next day.”
He said it was difficult to believe that the deceased had
been involved in an accident after they had communicated earlier on saying they
had arrived safely.
“It was difficult to believe at first because he had
communicated to a number of relatives who then posted on a family WhatsApp
group that he had arrived safely. I think he sent out those messages because he
was near to his place but he had not yet arrived,” he said.
Mrs Mavis Muzhanje, mother to Godfrey’s wife, could barely
come to terms with losing her daughter and breadwinner.
“This is so painful. She was the breadwinner in our family.
Together with her husband they were taking care of us well. We really do not
know how we will move on from here. They did everything for us including paying
school fees for a number of children in the family.”
Mrs Muzhanje said she had a dream about an accident a day
before it happened.
“I actually dreamt about it before it happened. It was a
strange and scary dream. In that dream, I was inconsolable as people broke the
news to me that my child had died in an accident. The strange thing is that I
was not really informed exactly who among my children had died. I thought it
was just a dream but later in the day received news that indeed my daughter,
her husband and their kids had died.”
Speaker after speaker during the interment rite spoke about
how Sithole loved his family.
Mr Zakaria Mateta, who led a group of former schoolmates
that drove to pay their last respects to their departed friend, also learnt of Sithole’s
death through the social media.
“I am gutted by Tonderai Sithole’s demise. From our high
school days at Biriiri our friendship developed further as we would constantly
interact and the most important thing we learnt from him was to love our
families. He inspired many people and may their souls rest in eternal peace.
“I got the news of his death on a WhatsApp group I created
called Bhora Redu. Another former Biriiri High School student Justice Sithole
posted the sad news on the group on Sunday night.
“I read the news but could not comment as I was shocked
that he was involved in an accident as he had posted earlier on that he had
arrived safely in SA. I gathered courage the next day to comment about the
disaster but it was difficult to believe that he was no more,” he said.
A Mutare based former classmate of the deceased at Biriiri
High School, Caroline Gatsi, said: “We all knew how Tonde loved his family. The
bond between him and his family was so strong that if one or two of them had
survived it was going to be really difficult for the survivor to bear the pain.
“The bond was so strong that they were always together.
Imagine they had the option of leaving the kids behind given that school term
is still underway in South Africa but they still had to travel together.”
Sithole was a forester who was well known in the industry
after years of working for Border Timbers at Imbeza plantation.
The accident occurred at night between Ladysmith and
Newcastle in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Manica Post
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