'Jonathan Moyo's daughter may have died of alcohol poisoning'

Newsday and New Age newspapers of South Africa have reported that an autopsy in the death of Zimbabwean minister Jonathan Moyo's daughter has ruled out foul play, saying she probably died of alcohol poisoning from excessive drinking. The South Africa police also says Zanele had tried to commit suicide before.

According to the Zambian Watchdog, a source close to the SA probe yesterday dismissed foul play as the cause of death of the 20-year-old University of Cape Town student.

"The preliminary autopsy report has been concluded and ruled out any foul play. Her death might have been caused by alcohol poisoning. We're also looking into reports that she tried to commit suicide twice and ended up in rehab last year as a result of alcohol abuse," the source said.

"We are just waiting on the toxicology report."

A second source confirmed to The New Age: "It remains unofficial that some internal organs burst as a result of excessive drinking."

This is contrary to information being churned out by the Zambian government at its embassy in South Africa. Emmanuel Mwamba hopes some Zambians will be convicted for the murder of Zanele and has gone to the extent of fabricating lies that one Zambian is detained in South Africa. Just two days ago, Mwamba issued another statement saying one of the Zambians linked to the death of a student in Cape Town, Stephen Chitobolo has finally reported himself to police.

Zambia's High Commissioner to South Africa Emmanuel Mwamba said in a statement issued by his press secretary Nicky Shabolyo in Johannesburg on Monday that Chitobolo voluntarily surrendered to law enforcement officers last week.

Mwamba said Mr Chitobolo reported himself at Rondbotsch Police Station in Cape Town on Thursday.

But this information is only known to Emmanuel Mwamba as no reputable media has reported it. It has just been reported in Daily Mail and Times of Zambia.

Surely South African media couldn't have missed such a huge development to the story. Mwamba circulated his claims to most South Africa media including SABC but they all ignored it as nonsense.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has set up a crack team of detectives to open fresh investigations into the death of Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo's daughter, Zanele.

On Tuesday night, Zimbabwe's Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko called on a three-member team of detectives from Zimbabwe's Criminal Investigations Department (CID) homicide squad to intensify their investigations.

The team, led by Chief Superintendent Nyaradzai Majachani, head of the CID homicide division, and Superintendent Tachiona, is said to have requested a second postmortem, which was done last Thursday.