Zanu-PF Kariba activists injured in Uhuru accident seek help

Zanu-PF members from Kariba, who were recently injured in a horrific road traffic accident, are appealing for financial assistance to meet hospital bills and other needs.

Among the injured is Chido Charikosa (21), who needs money to buy a prosthetic leg and pay medical bills at Sally Mugabe Hospital in Harare, where she is still admitted.

Charikosa had her right leg amputated after it was badly injured in the tragedy, which left four people dead and 32 others injured when a Nissan UD70 truck belonging to the Zimbabwe Electricity and Distribution Company (ZETDC) they were travelling in veered off the road and crashed.

The incident occurred at the 40km peg along Makuti-Kariba Road on Independence Day at around 10pm.

Speaking to NewZimbabwe.com from her hospital bed, Charikosa appealed for money to buy an artificial leg to enable her easy mobility.

She also asked members of the public to come forward to assist her with food, medicines and other provisions while she is still admitted at the hospital, where she is also nursing serious wounds to her left leg.

Charikosa is a single mother of a two-year-old boy.

Mounting on to her woes, she was served an eviction notice from her lodgings in Kariba while recuperating in hospital.

"Its so sad that help is not coming through official Zanu-PF channels, although l, as an activist, alongside many others, was maimed while returning to Kariba from a rural outpost where Independence Day commemorations were held," said Charikosa.

"The last high-profile Zanu-PF official to visit me was Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs Minister, Mary Mliswa-Chikoka, who came while l was still admitted at Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital. Since then, no one else has come besides my aunt here with me in Harare. This is disheartening as l feel abandoned."

"I am unemployed and both my parents are late. To add to my problems, my landlord gave me an eviction notice. l am wondering how l and my son will survive  after my discharge from hospital," lamented Charikosa, a self-confessed school dropout.

Concerned Kariba residents, Maxton Kanhema and Samson Coffee, have written a letter of appeal to Chikoka, seeking assistance on behalf of the victims.

"Our main worry is the neglect with which the injured survivors are being subjected to. Hon Minister, it can not be business as usual in your province when some of our compatriots are being neglected."

"We, and everyone in our community, are shocked by the government's response to this disaster. Independence Day and other national events will definitely lose relevance if this is the official attitude by our leadership.

"The community is running GoFund Me campaigns for the injured to procure some medicines and visits to hospitals.

Our urgent plea,  Hon Minister, is we know and trust you have capacity to ensure the injured get proper medical care because right now doctors are only dealing with what's available and you and I know our hospitals are ill-capacitated."

Kanhema and Coffee alleged government officials in Kariba were lying to Mliswa-Chikoka that something was being done to help bereaved families and those injured.