There were serious tensions between the state security service, Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) bosses and doctors at Avenues Clinic in Harare on 6 March 2009 after the involvement of the then prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai in a road accident around Beatrice which killed his wife Susan, former CIO Director-General Happyton Bonyongwe says.
The crash happened 50 km south of Harare as Tsvangirai headed to his rural home in Buhera along the then potholed Harare-Masvingo highway, one of the many damaged roads during the inclusive government.
A foreign aid truck rammed into Tsvangirai’s Land Cruiser and it overturned, killing Susan who had been married to Tsvangirai for 31 years.
Bonyongwe says this created serious tensions which almost exploded between CIO and medical doctors who suspected the accident was an assassination plot against Tsvangirai. Writing in his memoirs, One Among Many: My contribution to the Zimbabwean story, Bonyongwe says:
“Tsvangirai had with him a team of CIO officers as protection, and therefore I was one of the first people to know about the event.
“I contacted (the late former president Robert) Mugabe and briefed him. He then asked me to me arrangements for him to visit Tsvangirai in the hospital.
“The Avenues Clinic had provided the base of the Doctors for Human Rights and therefore relations between the Service and the Hospital were not very good. The senior doctors who supported the opposition all descended on the hospital. They wanted to save Tsvangirai whom they suspected had survived an assassination attempt by the CIO. My exchanges with the them at around 11.00 p.m. were quite tense. Their view was that the CIO security details should have taken the bullet for the chief, and the CIO vehicle should have driven into the vehicle which had rammed Tsvangirai’s car the moment they saw suspicious movement.
“I replied that this was not possible, otherwise, CIO vehicles would ram all on-coming traffic, not knowing which one would hit the principal’s car. My rationale was rejected.”
Bonyongwe says what saved the explosive situation was information which trickled in during the encounter, showing the automobile which crashed into Tsvangirai’s car was “an American Embassy vehicle”.
The former CIO boss adds:
“Fortunately, before Mugabe’s arrival, information came through that it was an American Embassy vehicle which had hit the MDC leader’s car.
“As the Americans were trusted allies of the MDC, this information put the CIO in the dear. Robert and Grace Mugabe arrived and I led them to see Tsvangirai, where theey expressed very genuine sympathy, and in my assessment the bereaved and wounded opposition leader was pleased to be consoled by the President and the First Lady. Mugabe also attended Susan’s funeral service at the Methodist Church in Mabelreign, Harare, and gave a speech. My deputy, Menard Muzariri, attended the burial in Buhera, and had the opportunity to convey the service’s condolences to Tsvangirai. This would have been inconceivable before the GPA (Global Political Agreement), which went a very long way toward lowering tensions in Zimbabwe.
“Having a fully functional civil service built on Commonwealth traditions was a very good thing. Even though the political environment in Zimbabwe was polarised, the civil service did well in servicing the Inclusive Government. During the early days, there was much suspicion, but eventually Tsvangirai chose to travel with properly trained professional CIO security details rather than his own MDC security personnel.
“I have always thought that the State should provide security or outside government. Security should not be a status symbol, but provided on the details to any citizen assessed as being vulnerable, regardless of whether they are in or outside government. Security should not be status symbol, but provided on the basis of threat levels by as assessed by the country’s security agency. The mushrooming of some pseudo-security companies and the proliferation of firearms would also be curtailed by such a move.”
