Montrose Girls High School headmistress Sekai Chiravana was among two passengers killed when the Toyota FunCargo they were travelling in collided with a DAF CF truck at a robot-controlled intersection in Bulawayo on Saturday evening.
The crash happened at about 7pm at the intersection of Masotsha Ndlovu Avenue and Old Victoria Falls Road, near Amakhosi Filling Station. The impact trapped both passengers inside the Toyota , leaving them dead at the scene.
Police said the Toyota FunCargo was being driven by Stephen Mafuwa, 63, of Killarney. He was travelling west along Masotsha Ndlovu Avenue with the two passengers when the vehicle turned right across the path of the oncoming truck.
The DAF CF was travelling east along the same road. It was driven by Abel Mufundirwa, 34.
“Circumstances are that the second party was travelling due west along Masotsha Ndlovu Avenue, turned right in front of oncoming traffic and was hit by the first party who was travelling due east along the same road,” police said.
The Toyota suffered extensive damage in the collision. Its left passenger door was deformed, the left headlight was broken and the windscreen was shattered. The DAF truck was also damaged.
Mafuwa is facing a culpable homicide charge in terms of Section 49 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23, as read with Section 64 of the Road Traffic Act, Chapter 13:11. Police said investigations were continuing.
The death of Chiravana, who led one of Bulawayo’s schools, has added to a growing list of road tragedies involving ordinary journeys that ended within seconds. The crash also brought fresh attention to the danger created when drivers misjudge traffic at busy intersections, especially where a turning vehicle crosses the line of oncoming traffic.
The Bulawayo deaths came as another fatal road crash was reported on the Harare-Chirundu Road, where ZESA employee Daniel Chaparira was killed in a head-on collision with a haulage truck.
Chaparira, 55, died last Thursday at about midday at the 188-kilometre peg after the Isuzu D-Max he was driving collided with a Volvo FH truck. Three people were travelling in the Isuzu.
The vehicle is said to have entered the lane of the oncoming truck as the driver tried to avoid a fire beside the road. The manoeuvre ended in a direct collision, causing extensive damage to the front sections of both vehicles.
Two other people in the Isuzu were injured and taken to Karoi Medscape Surgery. One was treated and discharged, while the other was admitted. The driver of the Volvo escaped without injuries.
“They were rushed to Karoi Medscape Surgery but, unfortunately, the driver, Daniel Chaparira, 55, of Ruvimbo, Chinhoyi, passed on,” said Mashonaland West provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Ian Kohwera. “One was treated and discharged, and the other one was admitted.”
Police urged motorists to exercise extreme caution when faced with hazards along the road. The warning came after a crash in which an attempt to avoid one danger placed a vehicle directly in the path of another.
Chaparira’s death was also felt in Chinhoyi, where colleagues and residents remembered him as a practical and generous man who regularly helped people with electrical faults in their homes.
Chinhoyi Mayor Councillor Owen Charuza, who worked with Chaparira at ZESA, said his former colleague had been known for helping people both in Cold Stream, where he lived before moving to Ruvimbo, and in his new neighbourhood.
“Even in Cold Stream, where he lived before moving to Ruvimbo, he was just somebody who was good to everyone. People would mostly seek his help when they had faults in their houses. It means they found Chaparira very resourceful. So it’s a big loss. For us at ZESA, it’s a very big loss. He was somebody who was good at cracking jokes. He will be greatly missed.”
The two crashes reflect the different ways in which a moment on the road can become fatal. In Bulawayo, a right turn brought a smaller vehicle into the path of a heavy truck at a signal-controlled junction. On the Harare-Chirundu Road, a roadside fire was linked to a vehicle moving into the opposite lane, where it met a haulage truck head-on.
Zimbabwe’s road safety authorities have repeatedly warned that dangerous driving remains a leading cause of crashes. Figures from the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe show that a road crash occurs roughly every 15 minutes, with an average of five people killed and 38 injured each day. Human error is linked to about 94 per cent of crashes, while distractions involving mobile phones account for about 10 per cent of deaths.
A United Nations road safety review found that officially recorded crash deaths rose from 1,291 in 2011 to 2,000 in 2019. The review said the official figures largely counted deaths at crash scenes and did not consistently include people who died later in hospitals. It also found that fatal crashes were more common at night, between 6pm and 6am, while Fridays and Saturdays recorded high numbers of crashes.
The same review identified head-on and side-swipe collisions among the most common fatal crash patterns. It called for stronger enforcement, better driver training, safer roads, improved vehicle inspections and more reliable national crash data.
Authorities have since pushed measures including body cameras and breathalysers for police officers, changes to driver training and a licensing system that would penalise repeat offenders. Traffic officials have also warned that motorists must remain alert when overtaking, turning, avoiding roadside hazards or approaching intersections.
For the families of Chiravana and Chaparira, those national figures are now tied to two names and two journeys that ended in sudden loss. In Bulawayo, the investigation continues after the Toyota and DAF truck met at the robots. Along the Harare-Chirundu Road, a family and a community are mourning a ZESA worker remembered for solving other people’s problems, before a road hazard turned his own journey into a fatal one.
The crashes have left police once again appealing for motorists to slow down, obey traffic signals, keep to their lanes and make careful decisions when faced with danger on the road.