Chiredzi Town is in mourning after residents lost six of their own in a head-on collision between a commuter omnibus and a haulage truck at Maranda turn off, 166km from Masvingo on the Beitbridge Highway on Tuesday.

The six have now been identified by police as Reuben Madzingo (24), Tawonga Mazana (28), Farai (38) and Collen Ernest Chipungu (37), Delight Zireva (31) and Vimbai Beta (41).

Beta was a farm manager at Farmware in Chiredzi.

Information gathered by The Herald shows that five of the six were businesspeople involved in commodity broking and were travelling to Polokwane, South Africa, on a routine business trip, while Madzingo had been sent by his father to buy spare parts for their tractor.
Chipungu owned the kombi and was driving.

They left Chiredzi around 3am, and three hours later, the lorry coming north encroached into their lane, resulting in the vehicles colliding head-on.

Zireva was a newly-wed after tying the knot in April last year and he left behind a wife who is expecting. Beta lost his wife some years back in a car accident, and is survived by three children.

Madzingo was a former student of Zimbabwe School of Mines, who was waiting for his final examinations results, while Mazana was still cutting his teeth in business.State media