THE two Zimbabweans who died in a horrific car crash in Zambia on Sunday night while driving from Tanzania were third-year electrical engineering students on apprenticeship at the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company in Bulawayo.
ALBERT NCUBE OWN CORRESPONDENT
Reward Nkomo (24) of Gwanda and Nicholas Dube of Bulawayo died on the spot when an Alpha Romeo vehicle that Nkomo had just imported was involved in a head-on collision with a haulage truck outside the Tanzanian border between Tutume and Chilenje towns about 500km away from the Zambian capital Lusaka.
Nkomo was said to be behind the wheel at the time of the accident.
Nkomo and Dube, who were close friends, died on the spot from impact and were found trapped in the vehicle.
Nkomo’s father Agrippa confirmed the death of his son saying they had been notified of the accident on Monday by Zimbabwean police.
“From the information we are gathering, it was a head-on collision and we hear part of that road is bad. However, we have not heard what happened to the truck driver,” the elder Nkomo said.
He said representatives of Nkomo and Dube families were set to leave for Zambia yesterday to go and positively identify theboys’ remains and bring them to Zimbabwe for burial.
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He said they were still trying to raise funds to transport the remains back to Zimbabwe.
“We are still trying to work out on how we can bring the deceased home. We are looking at leaving for Zambia today (yesterday), but we are still running around to raise transport funds.
“We have two options, either to drive our own vehicle into Zambia or alternatively hire a funeral parlour to ferry the bodies to the border where a local parlour will take over,” Nkomo said.
He said about $4 000 was needed to transport the remains.
Most Zimbabweans have resorted to importing cheaper second-hand vehicles from Japan and the United Kingdom via Tanzania as it is relatively cheaper than using South Africa or Botswana, which have banned imported used vehicles on their roads.
