HARARE – OLIVER MTUKUDZI believes he is to blame for the death of his son Sam, who perished in a car crash along the Harare-Bulawayo Highway in the early hours of Monday.
Tuku, as he is called by his legion of fans, said if he had not changed his travel plans there could have been a happier turn of events.
The grief-stricken superstar said he had asked Sam to pick him up at the Harare International Airport on Sunday evening when he and his wife, Daisy, were initially scheduled to arrive from a trip to South Africa.
There, however, was a change of plans that saw him and his wife fail to travel on Sunday evening.
Sam was involved in the fatal crash that also claimed his sound engineer Owen Chimhare’s life as they drove from Harare to Norton a few hours after they had gone to the airport to pick up Tuku and his wife.
“Marasika here? Asi makwira bhazi? (Are you lost or did you use a bus?) Sam jokingly asked me this on the phone as he waited at the Harare International Airport. I told him that I was staying (in South Africa) for another day and that I would return on Monday.
“I’m to blame, I shouldn’t have cancelled the trip because none of this would have happened,†the distraught Tuku said.
Tuku had asked Sam to pick him up at the airport on Sunday evening after his return from South Africa but he cancelled the trip at the last minute.
It is believed that Sam and Owen decided to go for a drink when Tuku said he was no longer coming and this – or alternatively, according to police sources, speeding and fatigue – may have contributed to the fatal crash.
Tuku was all tears as he spoke of the hopes he had for Sam’s future and musical career.
“He was an excellent young man and I thought he was going to take care of me once I retire. Ndiye ega mukomona, ndatorerwa. Dai ndafa ndirini zvangu. (He was my only son and he has been taken. It would be better if I had died),†he sobbed.
Earlier at the airport, business came to a halt as Tuku and his wife Daisy arrived from South Africa. Although they were told about the accident, it appeared the couple had not been informed of Sam’s death when Daisy lost composure and collapsed to the floor in tears.
Relatives and friends tried to comfort her, and Tuku too then broke down and started crying, “Mwanangu Sam! (My child Sam).â€
A big crowd, mostly of passengers who had disembarked from the same South African Airways plane the Mutukudzis had arrived on, gathered around them to share the grief of the bereaved parents. Zimdaily.com
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