Ex-minister suspects foul play in daughter’s death

By Bridget Mananavire | Daily News |

The mother of the late popular Harare socialite, Belinda Mutinhiri, has raised concerns that she may have been murdered when she died following a horrific car crash along Borrowdale road in Harare in September.

The deceased’s parents are Mashonaland East Provincial Affairs minister, Ambrose Mutinhiri, and former Labour and Social Welfare minister Tracy Mutinhiri.

Speaking to the Daily News exclusively, a still grieving Tracy said she was worried that her daughter could have been murdered after a woman who survived the car crash that killed Belinda “disappeared” at a time that the family has also noticed that it is being trailed by unknown people.

She said she found it “surprising and worrying” that the woman who was travelling with Belinda and survived the crash — Glorianne — had “disappeared” without explaining to the family what could have led to the fatal accident which claimed the former Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) employee.

“This is very painful for me and I don’t know how I will overcome this. If it was a straightforward accident maybe I would have found closure, but I can’t. This is bad.

“What wrong did my daughter do? She worked hard for her country. Why would they do this to her? I don’t know whether she was at the wrong place, at the wrong time. I can’t explain what exactly happened to Belinda.

“When we asked where Glorianne was, we were told she was critical at the Avenues. When we sent someone there, we were told she had been transferred to Parirenyatwa Hospital, and when we sent someone to Parirenyatwa, she was said to have been transferred to the Avenues,” Tracy said amid sobs.

“What should we make of this? Until she (Glorianne) left the country, we never saw her. Surely, she could at least have told us what happened because she was the last person who was with Belinda.

“Until now, she has never even phoned me or sent a text to say mhamha (mum) this is what happened to us,” the heartbroken mother and former Zanu PF women’s league political commissar said, amid suspicions that State agents may be involved in the case.

Tracy, who is divorced from Ambrose and is now a prominent opposition figure, said none of the family members were given a police report or a postmortem that helped to explain how the car accident may have occurred, or what caused Belinda’s death.

“Was it drunkenness, was it just negligence or something else that caused the accident? If she had been drinking, they could have done some blood tests to ascertain the alcohol content in her body.

“Now we are left with a lot of unanswered questions. This is the unfortunate story of Belinda. I don’t know if I am going to heal,” the grief-stricken former Zanu PF MP added.

Tracy was expelled from the former liberation movement in 2011 on murky charges of working with the MDC after she praised opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his party during the burial of her brother, Innocent Muzuva, who was a leading MDC activist.

She subsequently joined the MDC in 2012 after her expulsion from Zanu PF.

While Tracy would not say whether Belinda’s death could have been associated with her political activities, she said her family had noticed soon after her daughter’s burial that they were being trailed by suspected intelligence operatives.

“After the funeral, we discovered that we were being followed. I have worked in government and I know how the system works. I can tell you that I know when I am being trailed. Each time I move around they follow me.

“I thought people would give me my space to mourn my child, and that If they did this they should just leave me to mourn in peace. Now I fear for myself and my other children.

“I ask myself did she suffer because of her father’s politics, because her father is ex-Zipra, or my politics? But I left Zanu PF and I am now a member of the opposition MDC,” she wondered. Daily News