Harare CBD tragic accident — Eyewitness account
A deeply distressing incident unfolded this (yesterday) afternoon at the intersection of Robert Mugabe Road and Inez Terrace, leaving behind trauma, unanswered questions, and a painful sense that this tragedy could have been avoided.
It began when a white GD6 with South African GP number plates turned left into Inez Terrace − a street that functions as a one-way from the Joina City direction yet is poorly or not marked and easy to miss.
Police officers immediately apprehended the young driver for driving against the one-way. He complied without resistance, was ordered out of the vehicle, and instructed to proceed to the charge office to pay a fine.
The charge office is only a few minutes away. The young man went, paid the fine, and returned − expecting to continue his journey. Instead, he was met with another blow: his vehicle had been clamped by city council parking marshals.
Panicked and desperate, he ran after one of the marshals, hoping to explain and negotiate the release of his car. In that same moment, chaos erupted nearby. Police were chasing commuter omnibuses and mushikashika vehicles at the corner of Julius Nyerere Way and Robert Mugabe Road − another familiar cat-and-mouse pursuit on Harare’s streets. Tragically, one of the small vehicles veered off the road. The young man was struck.
He was thrown into the air, spinning violently before his head smashed into a windscreen. He collapsed onto the road.
And there he lay − for close to an hour. No immediate medical assistance. No urgent response. No protection from further danger.
All of this unfolded in full view of his young children, who were seated helplessly inside the vehicle. Their mother was away at the passport office, reportedly renewing her passport, unaware that her family’s life had just been shattered.
By any measure, this is a heartbreaking story. And it forces us to ask difficult but necessary questions: Why are one-way streets in Harare so poorly marked, leaving even cautious drivers vulnerable to costly mistakes?
Why does the relentless police chase culture continue − when time and again it has proven to endanger innocent lives more than it restores order?
Why would city parking marshals immediately clamp a vehicle with no outstanding debt, instead of issuing a ticket and allowing reasonable time for payment?
At what point do enforcement and regulation give way to common sense and humanity? Every step in this chain of events compounded the next.
Every system failed this family. This incident did not have to happen. Instead, children are now left carrying the lifelong trauma of watching their father struck by a car − simply because someone else was fleeing the police.
And it took over 45 minutes before any meaningful help even began to arrive. This was not just an accident.
It was a collective failure − of systems, priorities, and compassion.
I’m completely heart broken and very furious. *_-H-Metro_*
