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.
The vehicle they were travelling in was being driven by the owner Collen and they left Chiredzi around 3am. Zireva was a newlywed after tying the knot in April last year and he left a wife who is expecting. Beta lost his wife some years back in a car accident and is survived by three kids. Madzingo was a former student of the 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 today that he was still devastated and in shock.
“Reuben is my son and he has just completed his final examinations at the 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.”
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