Zimbabwe -
Phelekezela Mphoko, one of Zimbabwe's two new vice presidents, has been involved in a car crash, three days after his colleague allegedly survived an assassination attempt, state media reported on Sunday.
Mphoko escaped unscathed following the crash that occurred on Saturday in northern Harare.
First reports late on Saturday said the vice president's wife had been injured but this has not been confirmed.
Police spokesperson Charity Charamba told the Sunday Mail: “I can confirm that Vice President Mphoko was involved in a car crash along Enterprise Road... A T35 truck which was carrying wedding materials made a sudden stop on the road.”
Two vehicles at the front of the vice president's convoy swerved to avoid the truck but Mphoko's driver rammed into the back of it.
The government of long-time president Robert Mugabe claims that Mphoko's colleague Emmerson Mnangagwa survived an assassination attempt on Wednesday, hours before he was named first vice president. State media has shown pictures of his secretary Catherine Magaya recovering in hospital after she inhaled a poisonous substance sprinkled in Mnangagwa's office.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's wife was killed in a car crash in 2009, soon after he was named prime minister in the previous coalition government.
A number of politicians have died in car crashes in Zimbabwe in recent years.
Some of the accidents were widely seen as suspicious. - Sapa