The family of people who died in a road accident involving Harare preacher, Apostle Talent Chiwenga has said accusing the deceased of planning to kill the outspoken man of the cloth.
In a statement, Jealousy Mawarire, the speaker of opposition National People’s Party, whose brother and sister-in-law perished in the accident released a statement for the family saying accusations by Chiwenga’s church were outrageous.
We note, with concern, the attempt, by Talent Chiwenga’s church, to assume the duty of the police, VID & even the courts, to preside over a matter, that surely shld be b4 the courts since the accident claimed 3 lives.
While we are not experts in analysing accidents, we note, in the church statement, a deliberate omission of a huge contribution to that head-on collision, which is the absence of clear markings at the Norton tollgate of the transitioning from a single carriage into a dual carriage
No attempt was made, in the interest of fairness & safety of other road users today, to explain that while the Byo-Hre road dualisation is starting at the Norton tollgate, the tollgate covers only the old section, hence when travelling from Byo, the rd is a single carriage meaning when one is driving from Byo u get into the tollgate on a single carriage but exit the tollgate already in a dual carriage meaning automatically the lane u were using from Byo becomes a wrong lane just at the tollgate exit. There are no carriage marks to indicate this transition
There are no barricades to avoid traffic from Bulawayo proceeding through a wrong lane. This is information the Norton traffic police gave to family members of those who were involved in the accident & am sure the church got that info as well.
This info wasn’t given, just to explain how the accident happened, but also to warn us when travelling to the scene to avoid a similar collision. When we went to the scene around 10 pm, the police insisted we drove to the extreme left to avoid the fate that befell our relatives
As a family, thru a relative in the parliamentary portfolio committee on transport, we raised a complaint to the Min of Transport on the lack of clear transitioning markings at the tollgate. While this wld not help our already deceased relatives, it will help the motoring public
In the presence of such information, we wonder why the church, a supposedly religious & charitable organisation, deliberately, or otherwise, doesn’t inform the public of that info which even the Norton traffic police is complaining about. As a family, we also believe the church shld have contacted us as a bereaved family, if not to convey their condolences, but to inform us of allegations they’re now laying against our deceased relatives. My bro who was driving the white car had his drivers licence on him & a phone police used to contact us.
I also posted here that the person involved in the accident was my brother & if the church is making allegations against him, it is really fair that they contact us since he is no longer alive to answer to their allegations.
It is quite unfair to suggest that an educationist, owner of Prestige Secondary & Primary schools in Bulawayo, his wife & a Harare lawyer, Mr Makopa, who also perished in the accident, were on a suicidal mission to harm Chiwenga & kill themselves in the process.
Such allegations r not only callous but do not even rise to the level of nonsense. As a family, we have also registered disquiet, as to why a driver involved in a fatal accident was immediately extracted from the accident scene by non-medical staff b4 police attended the scene.
My brother, his wife & Mr Makopa were taken alive to Norton Hospital & Mr Makopa was then transferred to Harare where he, unfortunately, passed on early Tues while my brother & his wife, unfortunately, succumbed to injuries while being attended to at Norton hospital.
While we r not legal experts, we’re just surprised why the driver of the other car was whisked away from the accident scene “by a well-wisher” & also question the legality of such an act. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t have concerned us but it matters when same driver, on the night of the accident, was in a state of mind to begin circulating infor alleging our relatives, who passed on in the accident involving the car he was driving, were state security agents after his life.We r also interested, as he is, to know the identity of the car & driver he alleges was chasing him from Kuwadzana roundabout, caz that detail has effect on the way he was driving & consequently the head-on collision & the failure, by the 2 drivers, to avoid an imminent collision. We are also interested to know why he didn’t drive into either Kuwadzana or Norton police stations to alert that he was being trailed? We are of the opinion such a measure would have helped him avoid collision with our relative & maybe our relative cld have met other responsible drivers to alert him he was on the wrong lane.
While it wouldn’t have helped us or our deceased relatives we also believe, as part of ubuntu, the driver of the car involved in the accident with our deceased relatives, shld have contacted us since we understand he is alive. We had to know who he was thru his social media rants and a piece of paper we found around the wreckages which I attach here.
We thought it was in his interest, as is ours, to know the parties involved in the accident b4 his rantings on social media. A young lawyer’s life was lost in the accident, Prestige group of schools lost two directors in the accident & families lost breadwinners, relatives & friends in that unfortunate accident & were expected responsible citizens, let alone supposed church people, guided by the Spirit of Truth, to act responsibly & not use the demise of our relatives to feed into their paranoia & conspiracy theories. My brother & his wife were travelling for the burial of our sister on Tuesday morning when they met their deaths Monday evening & as a family, we ended up with 3 bodies to bury. That alone took a huge toll on us emotionally
The least we expected from a party to the was to act responsibly after contacting our family. But since we’re different beings with different aspects, temperaments, psychological & mental states, we have no choice but to live with extremities & absurdities life threw on us.
While we don’t want to be conspiracy theorists like Chiwenga & his church, we are naturally bound to ask why Talent Chiwenga is always involved in fatal road traffic accidents where 3 people die. Last year it was his wife, Mai Vhurumuku & a church member, this year it’s my brother, his wife & a Harare lawyer. In normal jurisdictions, the mental state, driving competency & psychological disposition of a common denominator in such fatal accidents is investigated, we can’t have a single being competing with Covid-19 in killing people thru road traffic accidents
Competent drivers r trained, no matter the circumstances, to avoid imminent crash, let alone head-on collisions, hence the two drivers should have, at least, tried to avoid the accident happening. No amount of social media ranting will absolve the 2 drivers of some culpability.