The Sunday Mail
The journey home that never was. This aptly captures the story of the four Chinyama family members who perished in the Harare-Nyamapanda Highway bus disaster of January 18.
The tragic death of a mother and her three children was made more unbearable as the Chinyama family and clansmen had to carry the coffins bearing the deceased for almost 12km on foot, due to the unavailability of the roads in the area bordering Mutoko and Nyanga where the deceased were laid to rest.
Last week in Johani Village, Vengai Chinyama (34) – father and husband of the deceased – narrated the horror that visited the family.
He lost his wife Vongai Chihowa (32), and their three children Tafadzwa (12) and twins Tashinga and Tanaka (7).
Battling to hold back tears and clutching little Tawananyasha – who survived the horror crash – Mr Chinyama told of his last moments with his wife at Mbare Musika in Harare.
Only if, he wondered out loud, maybe his family would be alive today. If only he had listened to a little voice inside that seemed to be warning him.
“After being harassed by Zupco bus company staff who wanted us to pay an extra US$2 for some stuff we had put on the seat she had occupied, I did not want her to go,” he said with a cracking voice.
Something told him to abandon the trip and re-plan for the following day. But his wife insisted on travelling that Sunday.
Paying the extra US$2 that he could ill-afford because his wife insisted on travelling, Mr Chinyama watched his family depart.
[READ MORE: Who will Provide for the Survivors – Written by Debra Matabvu]
The reason his wife insisted was because she was eager to get the children settled at a school at the rural home early in the term. It was both their desire that the children grow up at their maternal home, a home that Mr Chinyama himself admitted he had not visited in quite a while.
“I love you and let us give ourselves and our children a fresh start,” were the last words her wife uttered before they embraced and left Harare.
It was to be their last embrace.
Back in Johani Village, word had spread that Mr Chinyama’s wife and the children were returning home to permanently resettle and close relatives were hopeful that finally, the wife’s return would resuscitate the dilapidated and derelict homestead.
“We were all happy that she was coming back to re-establish the Chinyama homestead,” said Ms Hilda Jongororo, an aunt to the Chinyamas.
“We had been informed that they had boarded the Zupco bus, which is our only reliable bus here, and we expected them here together with the children.”
But the next news they were to receive was of the horrible accident between the Zupco bus and another operated by Unifreight.
That same message reached Mr Chinyama, who being penniless at the time had to get assistance from friends to retrace his family’s last journey.
“I was given some money to travel to the scene of the accident, but as soon as I saw that the side of the bus my wife and kids were sitting had been totally ripped, I immediately feared the worst.
“Police who were removing bodies of the deceased and the injured from the wreckage, on noticing my discomfort, immediately advised me to be strong and help them identify my relatives if they were among the deceased and the injured.”
He said he immediately identified his wife Vongai first, and then three children. Little Tawananyasha was nowhere to be seen, but he was to learn that his baby was alive.
“I was later told by the police details that the mother died, whilst clutching the child tightly to her chest,” he said holding the fortunate toddler.
Tawananyasha emerged from the crash that killed 26 people with a bruised eye among other injuries.
Government declared the accident a disaster, meaning victims would get State-assisted funerals.
But there was to be another hurdle: taking the deceased to their final resting place.
For the Chinyamas and other accident victims who also reside in the Johani, Chidye and Gibson villages, the accident exposed how badly their area needs proper roads and bridges.
The family and their friends had to carry the bodies – on foot – for a distance of up to 12km because the roads and bridges suffered their own tragic ends over the course of several rainy seasons.
Johani village headman Mr Johani Nyamukondiwa says the fact is, there simply are no roads in the area.
At the ghostly Gibson Shopping Centre, vehicles transporting the bodies of the deceased reached a dead-end, a good distance from the burial site.
“No car would be able to navigate the gully-infested rural terrain to the Chinyama homestead, except human power,” Mr Nyamukondiwa said.
“So, we organised teams to ferry the coffins from Gibson Shopping Centre up to the Chinyama homestead in Johani Village, including navigating through Nyamuzizi River, which was flowing at knee level.”
One of the drivers, Mr Isaiah Chaparanganda, added: “The roads are bad, and it is such a pity that coffins had to be carried on foot for such a long distance, which is inhumane and degrading.”
Mutoko Rural District Council chipped in with US$30 for every individual who lost their lives in the accident, and acknowledged the bad state of the road.
Officials said they were going to engage the District Development Fund, which was in charge of the infill roads in the Mutoko rural area.
It has all been a huge burden for Mr Chinyama. And now he says his remaining energy will go to looking after his little survivor, Tawananyasha.
