Two Killed in Horrific Hurungwe Accident

Business along Cripps Road in Graniteside was brought to a standstill as abnormal load trucks drove through the area recently.
Two people died on the spot when the driver of a container truck they were traveling in lost control and overturned in Hurungwe on Friday.

The accident occurred near Kazangarare business under Hurungwe Rural District Ward 9, Hurungwe North Constituency.

According to villagers, the accident occurred at Chikova turn-off under Headman Kamuchanga near Zebhedhia and Kadyamatimba villages.

The overloaded truck was coming from Harare auction floors and was loaded with farming equipment including scotch carts, fertilizers, cement, window and door frames, groceries and had over 20 passengers on board.

“I arrived a few minutes after the accident and the truck was resting by its side after the driver lost control,” one local villager Chaita Kazangarare said.

Another villager, Roderick Mumba, said: “It was a sorry state as people had to look for the head that was cut off from the body.”

Hurungwe North Member of Parliament, Pax Muringazuva, expressed sadness over the accident.

“It’s devastating that we lost two people on the spot and am still yet to get finer details of the accident,” he said.

Although it could not be independently confirmed, four of the seriously injured were transferred to Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital where one suffered broken legs.

Mashonaland West provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Ian Kowhera, confirmed the accident saying it was caused by human error.

“Two people died on the spot and their bodies were ferried to Karoi mortuary,” said Kowhera in a telephone interview.

“The injured are currently receiving treatment at the hospital.

He warned drivers to be extra careful when driving.

“Most road accidents are due to human error and we call on drivers to respect life lost due to irresponsible driving,” the police spokesperson said.

The Harare-Chirundu highway, which links Zimbabwe and Zambia, is in a deplorable condition and this has been cited as the major contributor to the high number of accidents on the route. The Standard

*Chiweshe Man Murders Cheating Wife*
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A jealous Chiweshe man, who failed to control his temper and allegedly assaulted his wife to death after accusing her of cheating on him, has been arrested.

Sydney Muringai (24) of Muringai Village, Chiweshe is assisting police with investigations in connection with the murder of his wife Bethel Nhamburo (22).

Mashonaland Central police spokesperson Inspector Milton Mundembe confirmed the murder case.

Allegations are that on June 7 at night, Muringai went outside the bedroom to smoke while his wife was in bed.

Upon his return, he started accusing his wife of having extra-marital affairs and a misunderstanding arose.

He started assaulting her with a rope all over the body before picking a wooden plank which he used to assault her on the occiput. She passed out before sustaining a deep cut and bled profusely. Muringai stopped assaulting his wife after she became unconscious.

He tried to render first aid before calling for help from his brother Allan, who came with his wife. They tried to rush the now deceased to hospital, but she died along the way. The Standard

*Zim miners to get paupers’ burial in SA*
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The North West health department in South Africa is awaiting documentation, including death certificates, for the bodies of 23 illegal miners recovered from Stilfontein mine.

Department spokesperson Tshegofatso Mothibedi said the bodies will be buried by the end of June once the documentation has been finalised.

“We have 23 [bodies] awaiting documentation [death certificates] from home affairs and they will then be buried.

“Our expectation is we will receive the documentation in the coming weeks and mass funerals will be carried out at month-end,” he said.

“Since the start of the verification and identification process we have successfully identified and handed 25 bodies to their loved ones, after they came forward and positively identified the deceased through a DNA match.”

They are from Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Mozambique.

Mothibedi said 30 unidentified bodies were buried this week as part of the 78 corpses discovered earlier this year at abandoned mine shafts in Stilfontein.

The burials have taken place in Kanana and Stilfontein in accordance with legal provisions that allow the burial of unidentified people once all efforts to identify them have been exhausted.

“We have at least 30 and more to conduct identification processes and beyond that the law empowers government to conduct mass funerals.”

Mothibedi also addressed public concern about the transparency of the process, saying the department has made efforts to involve communities and trace the identities of the deceased.

“We waited for more than four months with calls made for community members to come forward with information to help us identify the bodies. We have extracted DNA from the bodies and archived them in case someone comes forward later to make a claim,” he said.

“It is not true the department has kept burials secret. Burials of unidentified bodies happen all the time and are normally carried out without fanfare. There are no invitations to mass funerals.”

Authorities are appealing to anyone with missing family members to contact the health department or local authorities, as DNA profiles remain available for future identification. The Standard

*Council flats ‘a time bomb’*
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Bulawayo City fathers have raised concern that nothing has been done to address service delivery challenges at Sidojiwe flats that were condemned as unfit for human habitation in 2001.

Sidojiwe Flats is located at the Belmont Industrial area, a few kilometres from the central business district (CBD).

Surrounded by closed companies at the Belmont area and a dense bush area, Sidojiwe can easily be mistaken for an area that was deserted by people fleeing war years ago.

The entrance to the two blocks of flats at Sidojiwe sums up the dilapidation of the buildings — broken down windows, very dark corridors and a bad stench from burst sewer pipes welcomes visitors.

A malfunctioning sewer system is a common eyesore for the over 300 families at the Sidojiwe flats who share one common kitchen, five colonial era bucket system toilets and one bathroom.

During a full council meeting last week, city fathers demanded actionable plans from directors of relevant departments to address the living conditions at the flats.

At the heart of the issue are concerns over living conditions, infrastructure, and service delivery.

“Council had declared the place unfit for human habitation,” ward 5 councillor Octavius Nkomo said.

“In 2001, a sizeable number of those residents applied for new houses under the millennium scheme.

“Up to date they have not been able to acquire any residential stands or houses.”

He described the living conditions at Sidojiwe as a time bomb.

“The residents had been there for years and nothing had been done,” he said.

He proposed that a committee be established to look into the short term and medium term interventions.

Nkomo said the council should dispatch a team headed by the chairperson of the committee, director of housing and community services and the director of health services to address the housing registration issues.

Ward 23 councillor, Ntombizodwa Khumalo, proposed that a committee be established to look into the short term and medium term interventions.

Bulawayo United Residents Association chairperson, Winos Dube, said the flats must be decommissioned.

“We look forward to seeing something being done to make sure that we avoid a lot of dangers that could befall residents residing at the flats,” Dube said.

The town planning department says Sidojiwe was historically designed to temporarily accommodate only 82 bachelors, who worked in the city’s industrial sites, but now has over 700 dwellers.

In July 2022, council ordered Sidojiwe flats residents to vacate the premises after the apartments were condemned as unsafe for human habitation the previous year.

The flats were built during the colonial era for the working class in the Belmont industrial area. The Standard

*Mini-Trabablas proposed for Bulawayo*
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THE Government is considering establishing a mini-interchange in Bulawayo similar to the iconic Trabablas Interchange in Harare to ease congestion and improve traffic flow.

This was revealed by the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Felix Mhona, during a recent parliamentary session, where he updated the nation on progress being made on several key roads in the southern region.

The proposed Bulawayo mini-interchange would mark a significant milestone in devolution-aligned urban transport planning, with the potential to stimulate economic activity and attract further investment into the region.

“I have tasked my engineer for the Bulawayo Province to also interrogate and see what we can have in terms of a mini-interchange. I will keep the August House updated pertaining to where we are going to be putting the interchange in particular,” said Minister Mhona.

Although specific locations are yet to be disclosed, the announcement signals a growing Government commitment to ensure Bulawayo receives comparable road infrastructure upgrades to those implemented in the capital.

This development is expected to significantly enhance urban mobility, reduce traffic bottlenecks and complement ongoing works on the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway.

“Contractors for the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road have been mobilised and as we speak, five are on the ground.

They are opening detours and traffic will then be moved to detours as they attend to the roads,” Minister Mhona said.

The Government has adopted a decentralised and accountable approach, awarding specific stretches of the road to individual contractors responsible not only for construction but also for routine maintenance and beautification.

“We are going to be maintaining and every particular contractor on a particular section — they are awarded and will superintend over road maintenance, grass cutting and each particular contractor has got about 50km.

So, you will see them maintaining and at the same time opening a detour. They will be doing 5km detours. As they finish, they move traffic back to the roads and continue on their stretch,” he added.

The project is expected to take about 10 months to complete and will be carried out in phases, with contractors working on specific sections of the road in a co-ordinated kilometre-by-kilometre approach.

The Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road is one of the country’s key national highways and a vital regional corridor that links the country to Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia. It serves thousands of domestic travellers and international tourists each year.

The road is also essential for the movement of goods between southern Zimbabwe and the north-western regions, including the Hwange coalfields and surrounding mining and agricultural zones.

Over the years, however, the route has become notorious for its potholes, eroded shoulders and narrow lanes, prompting calls from residents, tourism operators and cross-border transporters for urgent intervention.

The Second Republic, under President Mnangagwa, has continued to prioritise infrastructural development countrywide under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP2) and various other initiatives, which have transformed the economy as well as creating employment and brought joy among citizens.

The President has invested significantly in infrastructural development as a key enabler of economic transformation, despite limited access to external lines of credit.

So far, more than 50 000km of roads have been rehabilitated, while 2 000 structures have been attended to since the start of the ERRP2 in 2021.

The Government is also in the process of negotiating with potential investors for the rehabilitation of some of the country’s roads.

In yet another transformative infrastructure announcement, Minister Mhona confirmed that construction will soon begin on the long-awaited Kwekwe-Nkayi-Lupane Road, a strategic route that will significantly reduce travel time from Harare between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls.

“The good news, exciting news, is that we are now going to be starting on the Kwekwe-Nkayi-Lupane Road. The contractor is mobilising, which is also going to shorten the distance to Victoria Falls. The same contractor will be working on the entire stretch of the Bulawayo-Nkayi Road,” said the minister.

The road development projects, including the proposed interchange in Bulawayo are part of the Second Republic’s commitment to modernising national infrastructure under the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) and Vision 2030. Sunday News