Zimbabwe PM injured, wife killed in car crash

HARARE (AFP) - The wife of Zimbabwe’s new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was killed Friday in a car crash that also left him injured and in hospital, his party said.
The couple was headed to his hometown in Buhera district where he was to hold a rally on Saturday, but their car was hit by a freight truck and Susan Tsvangirai died at the scene, party officials said.
“The prime minister was travelling to Murambinda (in Buhera) at about 1600 hours when his vehicle was involved in an accident with a haulage truck and the vehicle in which the prime minister was travelling rolled over about three times with its four occupants,” Tsvangirai’s spokesman James Maridadi said. He declined to confirm Susan Tsvangirai’s death, but another party official said on condition of anonymity that she died at the scene.
“Mrs Tsvangirai died on the spot... but the details are still sketchy,” the party official said.“The driver of the truck appeared to be sleeping. (Tsvangirai) was travelling to his rural home in Buhera where he was due to hold a rally Saturday,” an MDC minister told AFP.
Tsvangirai was taken to a private hospital, where he was in stable condition a senior party official said after visiting him.
“He is in a stable condition but on a machine,” the official said, but said he did not know what kind of treatment Tsvangirai was receiving.
Another source who had visited him at the hospital said Tsvangirai’s head appeared swollen, but doctors had not yet commented on his condition.
Tsvangirai was sworn in three weeks ago as prime minister, joining his long-time rival President Robert Mugabe in a unity government.