Wreckage of Theresia’s car
Peter Matika, Senior Life Reporter
LOSING his wife in a tragic accident in September this year dealt a great blow to Sifundiswa Mdlongwa, a senior network planning and implementation manager at a telecommunications company outside the country.
His life has slipped from that of a jovial tot to that of a gloomy and grumpy old git. To sum it up, he is a man apart, torn from within, his head bustling with so many unanswered questions about the events leading to the accident that took his wife’s life.
His wife was involved in a head-on collision, which set her vehicle on fire along the Masvingo-Harare highway. Mdlongwa strongly feels that justice was not served, and has accused police of not being efficient and also feels the driver of the vehicle that collided with that of his wife has had no sympathy in finding out what happened to her after the crash.
He says not only was justice not served but also there are many unanswered questions to the puzzle of the accident, which he feels the police are yet to solve. Since the death of his wife — Theresia Mdlongwa, who was employed by Great Zimbabwe University and drove a Ford Focus, Mdlongwa has taken it upon himself to try and solve the puzzle.
Mdlongwa has resorted to writing on his Facebook page seeking answers.
“This is what you did. I had expected you will at least have come and said ‘I am sorry’. As I leave I also leave it to your conscience to do the right thing. What difference is there between a man who carries an axe and chops another’s neck off to one who drives a car with a bull bar and rams it into a hapless woman driver in broad daylight? Both cases equate to murder.
You murdered my wife! You will or already took advantage of my mourning period to bribe your way out of the short arm of the law. But remember there is another judgement day,” wrote Mdlongwa.
He added: “Police have refused to give details. The driver of this vehicle is the one who removed my wife from the car that had caught fire. This is a South Africa-registered car, which apparently was side-swiped before coming to hit Theresia’s car head-on after encroaching onto her lane.
“There are many issues that I need answers to. I had a glimpse at the police diagram, which shows the point of impact on my wife’s lane. More importantly assuming it was an accident the person involved (Romeo) nor the owner of the vehicle (ZimAlloys) have not made any effort to pass their condolences or at least make an effort to find out who and what happened to the person who was in that car. His insurance has not been informed too. His licence has not been produced,” he said.
Mdlongwa said there was a lot that needed to be done to answer his questions.
“Why has the case not even been handed to the PP (public prosecutor)? How can a company car be removed from VID? Is ZimAlloys aware of the incident? Did the guy produce his driving licence? Was he on duty carrying red oxide? Is his insurance aware? Did they take witnesses? Why are they not giving us the scene diagram? And only saying under investigation, for how long? What is the investigation officer’s conclusion,” he questioned.
Police in Masvingo could not be drawn into commenting on the issue, as they referred all questions to the national traffic police spokesperson — Inspector Tigere Chigome, who could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press.
@peterkmatika