HARARE, Zimbabwe- Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa has revealed that businessman Wicknell Chivayo shared plans to support disadvantaged communities and war veterans during a meeting a day before he died in a helicopter crash.
In a condolence statement issued on Thursday, Mnangagwa said Chivayo spoke to him on Tuesday after a Cabinet meeting about projects he intended to undertake.
“He shared with me some of these grand plans only this last Tuesday after our Cabinet meeting, just a day before his tragic end,” the president said.
Chivayo and his wife died when their helicopter crashed in rural Marondera on Wednesday, September 30. Mnangagwa’s statement also mourned two crew members and a security aide.
Couple was returning from community projects
Mnangagwa said the couple had been returning from Gandami in rural Chikomba, where they were developing family and community facilities.
“Tellingly, the Chivayos lost their lives on their way back from Gandami in rural Chikomba where they were putting up modern family and community structures,” he said.
The president described the projects as consistent with Zimbabwe’s rural development agenda, which encourages investment and economic activity outside major urban centres.
The statement did not explain what caused the helicopter to crash.
President mourns a personal loss
Mnangagwa said the deaths had left him, his family and the country in shock.
“We are all shattered by this unexpected, sudden demise of so young a family and officers for whom so much promise held,” he said.
He praised the Chivayo family’s charitable giving, saying its contributions had reached people working in politics, religion, public service, culture and sport.
According to the president, the family’s donations ran into millions of dollars and supported people across different professions.
Mnangagwa also said he knew of plans Chivayo had for disadvantaged Zimbabweans and war veterans, whose welfare the businessman had sought to improve.
Condolences to bereaved families
The president extended condolences to the Chivayo family and the relatives of everyone who died in the crash.
“We mourn with and stand by them in this hour of deep, inconsolable grief and pain,” he said.
He urged the bereaved families to draw comfort from the contributions their loved ones had made to the country.
“May their dear souls be rested eternally,” Mnangagwa said.
