The car crash in March this year which caused the death of the Zimbabwean prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s wife Susan was not an accident, says Dutchman Peter Hermes, an independent advisor to Tsvangirai.

“I think that the judiciary in Zimbabwe is very busy covering up what happened. Also the police didn’t investigate what happened. They were destroying forensic evidence immediately after the accident. They left the car for a couple of days upside down by the side of the road so it was very hard for independent investigators to find evidence,” says Hermes who has worked closely with Tsvangirai ever since he was a union leader.

Hermes’ comments come just days after a magistrate in the town of Chivhu postponed judgement in the case of the driver accused of causing Susan Tsvangirai’s death as a result of her being thrown out of the car following the collision. Chinowona Mwanda maintained that he had hit a concrete lump in the road, lost control of his vehicle and hit the prime minister’s Land Cruiser as it travelled in convoy along the Harare-Masvingo highway.

While Tsvangirai himself has always maintained it was an accident, rumours surrounding the crash have persisted. It has been widely publicised that Deon Theron, the vice-president of Zimbabwe’s commercial farmers union, happened to be at the scene of the accident and took photographs that the police could have used as evidence. Instead, according to media reports, the police arrested him and destroyed the evidence.

“There has been an investigation by the MDC [Tsvangirai’s party Movement for Democratic Change] people itself. The report has not been released and I haven’t seen the report, but information leaked out,” Hermes explains. He says the circumstantial evidence indicates that there is more to the story than came out during the trial of Chinowona Mwanda.

“Firstly of all, he [the truck driver] was not an employee of the company that hired the car to US Aid, which had hired the car for food transport. The person who normally drove it was not driving that day. It has also been shown that he was a member of the Central Intelligence Organisation – like the two people in the cars in front and behind Tsvangirai. They were appointed by Robert Mugabe to protect the prime minister – but at the moment of the accident both those cars were far away from car of Tsvangirai. Which is also very suspicious, you could say.”

So how can Hermes speak with such conviction, when the evidence is only circumstantial? While he has no concrete proof that there was an actual conspiracy, he remains certain he is right.

“I am convinced [it was not an accident] but I can’t prove it. There have been many accidents in the past for political reasons in Zimbabwe in which many people have died. There has never been any proof that the government was involved. However everyone believes it has been the case. Another surcomstantial piece of evidence is that arrangements for Mugabe to visit the hospital after the accident had been made before it actually took place. Like I say, I have no proof, but this is my opinion.”

Prime minister Tsvangirai himself has always denied it was anything more than an accident. “He also can’t prove it. If he were to begin to stress the opinion that it was not an accident it would put pressure on the inclusive government - and possibly cause that inclusive government to fall apart. In the interests of the people of Zimbabwe he thinks it is better to express the opinion that it was an accident.”

(Source)