Zimbabwe’s prime minister has left the country for medical treatment after he was injured in a car crash that killed his wife, state media reported today.
A party official said Morgan Tsvangirai was in Botswana.
State radio and the government-run Sunday Mailsaid Mr Tsvangirai left yesterday soon after being released from the Harare hospital where he had been treated after his car collided Friday with a truck carrying US aid.
The paper quoted MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa as saying Mr Tsvangirai left after consultations with his family, party and government “for further medical examination and attention just to make sure that we have exercised due diligence. We are not leaving any medical stone unturned”.
Officials of his party refused to say publicly where he had gone, but an official of Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change said it was neighbouring Botswana, where Mr Tsvangirai spent months last year, fearing for his life in his homeland.
Botswana president Seretse Ian Khama has been one of the few African leaders to openly criticise Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980 and is accused of destroying its economy and trampling on democratic and human rights.
Mr Tsvangirai was flown to Botswana to recover from the accident and to undergo another medical check-up, but is expected to return to Harare late tomorrow, a senior MDC and government official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
Susan Tsvangirai is expected to be buried on Wednesday, a senior MDC and government official said on today.
"The arrangement is that Mrs Tsvangirai will be buried on Wednesday in her rural home of Buhera," he said. A procession commemorating her would be held in Harare on Tuesday.
Mr Tsvangirai, who left hospital in the capital yesterday, has suffered head and neck wounds, but is in stable condition, other officials said.
After a dispute over presidential elections nearly a year ago and months of state-sponsored violence against MDC members and independent political activists, Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Mugabe formed a coalition government last month.
But the union has been rocky from the start. The long history of political violence blamed on Mr Mugabe’s forces — including several assassination attempts on Mr Tsvangirai — is now fuelling speculation Friday’s car crash, in which Susan Tsvangirai (50) was killed, was not an accident.
Mr Tsvangirai’s party called for an investigation into the crash, and said it could have been avoided had Mr Tsvangirai had the kind of motorcade that travels with Mr Mugabe. Since becoming prime minister, Mr Tsvangirai usually travels in a convoy of four or five cars with his own and government guards, while Mr Mugabe travels with dozens of cars and motorcycles.
Mr Tsvangirai was headed to a weekend rally in his home region when the accident occurred. State television said the truck swerved on an uneven and notoriously dangerous road on the outskirts of the capital, Harare. Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesman said the car carrying the prime minister, his wife, a driver and a bodyguard sideswiped the truck and rolled at least three times.
Poor maintenance has left many roads in Zimbabwe in dangerous condition.
The driver and the bodyguard were injured, but not seriously. Dr Douglas Gwatidzo, head of casualty at the Harare hospital where Mr Tsvangirai was treated, said the prime minister had head injuries and chest pains.
The Tsvangirais, who married in 1978 and had three daughters and three sons, often went together to political events, but Susan Tsvangirai did not have a prominent public role.
Mr Tsvangirai, who turns 57 Tuesday, formed the MDC a decade ago. As it emerged as a serious political challenger, Mr Tsvangirai repeatedly faced the wrath of Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party. He has been beaten and was once nearly thrown from a 10th floor window by suspected government thugs.
Zimbabwe has the world’s highest official inflation rate, a hunger crisis that has left most of its people dependent on foreign handouts and a cholera epidemic blamed on the collapse of a once-enviable health and sanitation system.
AP