Sean Tsvangarai, Zimbabwean Prime Minister’s grandson, buried on Monday

HARARE - After the death of his wife, killed violently less than a month ago in a traffic accident, Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangarai suffers yet another sudden family loss during the weekend. His two-and-a-half year old grandson was found dead Saturday afternoon, drowned in the swimming pool of the family's private home in Harare.

On Saturday, the Prime Minister's spokesman revealed that the young boy had drowned at Tsvangarai's residence in the capital city. According to Mr. James Maridadi, the infant “had wandered off and was found later in the pool of the house”. He was said to be sleeping unguarded in one of the house's back rooms before that, sources close to the Tsvangarai family said.

Sean Tsvangarai was the youngest grandson of Morgan Tsvangarai's two grandchildren, and the child of the prime minister's second son, Garikai, who is a Canadian resident but had returned with his wife Lilian to Harare following the passing away of his mother.

When the tragedy occurred, Morgan Tsvangarai was leading a three-day government retreat in Victoria Falls that was sponsored by the World Bank and which brought together government ministers and President Robert Mugabe. The Prime Minister, however, opted to cut short the retreat in order to join his grieving family after being briefed on the incident. The meeting, which comes ahead of yet another important encounter this week with Mugabe, was meant to lead to the drafting of a 100-day plan that is supposed to reverse the current deep economic crisis facing the nearly torn apart State of Zimbabwe.

Morgan Tsvangarai recently lost his 50-year-old wife Susan in a deadly collision that happened along the Harare – Masvingo road in which he only sustained slight injuries according to reports, although he suffered bruising to both his head and chest. The crash is believed to have been cause by a US-sponsored aid vehicle.

The occurrence of this latest tragedy is an anew blow to Zimbabwean Prime Minister who, after being sworn in as Prime Minister on March 6, is now highly expected to bring about unity, cooperation as well as stability, including reviving the economy in particular. The country has been plunged into deep recession for several years now.

Burial services for little Sean were scheduled on Monday in Buhera, which is Morgan Tsvangarai's home village.

Scores of people attended the ceremony. Also present were senior government ministers from the ZANU-PF – the Zimbabwean political party led by Mugabe – as well as from the two NDC movements.

Sean Tsvangarai now lies near to his late grandmother in Buhera.

By Christiana Asante
Freelance Professional French and English Transcriber and Writer