Zimbabwe Railways Boss Dies in Car Accident

via Zimbabwe Railways Boss Dies in Car Accident  via VOA Zimbabwe

National Railways of Zimbabwe general manager Retired Air Commodore Michael Karakadzai died at Mater Dei Hospital this morning after suffering serious injuries in a car accident along the Bulawayo-Harare road.

Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba told the state-controlled Herald newspaper that Karakadzai died soon after admission at the hospital after his car hit a stray animal in Shangani, an area bordering Matabeleland North and South provinces.

Charamba said the vehicle of the late NRZ boss overturned after hitting the animal.

No further details were given by the police who said investigations are in progress.

In Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, NRZ board chairman Kotsho Dube said in a statement the death of the railways boss was a blow to the parastatal which was in the process of reviving operations after decades of loses.

The late Karakadzai is among several top army officers who were drafted by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF government into state enterprises in 2005.

He obtained a Graduate Diploma in Purchasing and Supply from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply in the United Kingdom.

Karakadzai also attended the Royal College of Defence Studies in the U.K where he obtained a Masters Degree in Strategic Defence Studies.

Australia placed him and other senior army officers under targeted sanctions for allegedly spearheading President Mugabe’s violent presidential election re-run in 2008.

At the time of his death, the NRZ was failing to pay workers’ salaries due to serious operational problems. Karakadzai claimed that the parastatal was failing to get external investment as a result of sanctions imposed on him and top Zanu PF officials.