Wicknell Chivayo, a businessman closely tied to Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party, and his wife, Lucy Muteke, were among six people killed when a helicopter crashed in the Marondera rural area east of Harare, state broadcaster ZBC reported. Police said the crash happened about 72km east of the capital at around 1500 GMT on Wednesday. The helicopter had left the family home in Gandami, about 144km from Harare.
Crash and casualties
Family spokesperson Herbert Chivayo confirmed the couple’s deaths to ZBC. “When it crashed, it burst into flames,” he said. He described the people aboard as “five people,” naming two pilots, a security aide, Muteke and Chivayo.
Police said six people were aboard, but didn’t immediately confirm the victims’ identities. Government spokesman Nick Mangwana said on X that “one high-profile businessman, three other passengers, and two pilots” were involved in the crash. “Current information indicates that there were no survivors in this crash,” he added. Mangwana said police would confirm the victims’ identities in due course.
The accounts differ on how many people were aboard: Herbert Chivayo described five, while police and Mangwana reported six. The government spokesman’s account included one businessman, three other passengers and two pilots. Police hadn’t immediately identified those killed.
Political and business ties
Chivayo, 43, was a prominent businessman with connections to ZANU-PF, which has held power in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. His ties with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling party fuelled public cynicism, according to the report. He was among conspicuously wealthy businessmen linked to the party.
Social media displays of wealth and high-profile gifts helped shape Chivayo’s public profile. Weeks before the crash, he donated a Rolls-Royce, a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon and a Maybach to a Zimbabwean preacher and the preacher’s wife. He’d also given another church $2 million in cash, buses and cars. At the ceremony, he was filmed showing bundles of banknotes.
The report said businessmen close to the ruling party led lavish lifestyles that stood in sharp contrast to widespread economic hardship in the country. Chivayo also had connections with leaders of Ewastini, Kenya and Uganda. Around two decades ago, he spent three years in jail after a money-laundering conviction.
Government contract
Chivayo’s company, Intratrek Zimbabwe, won a government contract in 2015 worth more than $170 million to build a 100-megawatt solar plant in Gwanda, in the southwest. The state-run power utility later sought to end the deal because of delays.
In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the contract was valid. Last month, the government ordered the project to proceed. The contract’s history put Chivayo’s company at the center of a major government energy project. Police still must confirm the identities of all six people reported aboard the helicopter.