BULAWAYO – An army truck heading to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s launch of what was described as a “market gardening project” in Makorokoro, Matabeleland South, overturned on Wednesday killing two soldiers and injuring several others, witnesses said.

The truck was carrying 25 soldiers when it overturned and rolled over between Plumtree and Makorokoro, a village in Mangwe district close to the border with Botswana.

A witness said: “The driver failed to negotiate a curve on Madabe Road and it flipped over. The truck was overloaded. It’s shocking that in this era of Covid-19 they could pack so many people in that truck, yet the government goes around preaching social distancing.”

The injured were ferried to Maphisa District Hospital and Plumtree District Hospital.

Mnangagwa was in Makorokoro to launch what the state-run ZBC described as the “Matabeleland South market gardening project.”

Mnangagwa toured a vegetable garden and then addressed a rally of hundreds of Zanu PF supporters, many of them bussed in from neighbouring villages and some from as far as Plumtree and Maphisa.

Mangled metal … The army truck which overturned in Mangwe killing two soldiers and injuring several others
Garden launch … President Emmerson Mnangagwa picking some vegetables in Makorokoro on December 15, 2021