Tsvangirai's grandson drowns in pool

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• Online: Prime Minister's Website

By Nelson Banya
Posted to the web: 05/04/2009 12:47:51
ZIMBABWE Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has suffered another family tragedy shortly after taking office, with the death of his infant grandson, his spokesman said on Sunday.

An official in Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the four-year-old grandson identified as Sean drowned in a swimming pool at the Prime Minister's Harare home in Strathaven.

Sean is the son of the Prime Minister's second born child, Garikai, who lives in Canada and has been in Zimbabwe since the death of Tsvangirai's wife, Susan, in a car crash on March 6. Tsvangirai was injured in the crash.

Her death raised questions over how quickly he could recover and take on the urgent task of rescuing the ruined country after he was sworn in on February 13 in a new unity government with President Robert Mugabe.

Tsvangirai left a government reconstruction meeting in Victoria Falls on Saturday after learning of his grandson's death, spokesman James Maridadi said.

Friends of the family said the child had been left sleeping in a back room of the modest suburban home on Saturday afternoon.

“Someone went to check and he wasn’t there. They went looking and he was found in the pool,” said one. “He must have wandered out on his own.”

The pool in the back of the yard was not fenced. There was no suspicion of foul play, the friend said.

Deaths by drowning are frequent in Harare, where most middle class homes have pools.

A statement from Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party said Sean's body will leave for the Tsvangirais' Buhera rural home for burial on Sunday evening.

"He will be buried on Monday at Humanikwa Village," the statement said.

Tsvangirai returned to work on April 1 after mourning for his wife Susan.

The unity government faces the daunting task of reversing 10 years of economic decline. - Reuters
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