Online Reporter
Sharon Jiyamwa and Remember Deketeke
IT was supposed to be a journey of faith.
A church conference that would afford the golden chance to worship, pray, fellowship and travel together as a family.
Instead, it became a journey from which Mr Albert Magiya’s wife and five children would never return.
When The Sunday Mail visited the Magiya homestead in Dema, 40 kilometres southeast of Harare, on Thursday, a day after five members of the family were buried following a horrific road accident, grief hung heavily over the household.
The familiar rhythm of family life had been shattered. No children were running around the yard, no mother moving between household chores and no laughter drifting from the rooms.
Only silence.
For Mr Magiya, the husband and father left behind, the reality remains almost impossible to comprehend.
His wife Mellisa is gone.
So are five of their children — Munashe (18), a nursing student; Tanaka (13); Talent (10); Nenyasha (5); and Adele, who was just one year and four months old.
Only the twins — Praise and Princess, aged seven — their brother Tawananyasha (15) and married daughter Natasha (22) survived.
Yet what haunts Mr Magiya most is how ordinary everything seemed before the journey.
A premonition ignored
He recalls waking up on the fateful day with a deep sense of unease.
“I was really feeling it in my heart that we were not supposed to go,” he said.
The family had discussed travelling to a church conference and at one point he decided he would stay behind.
But his wife and children insisted on travelling.
For them, it was an opportunity for worship, fellowship and prayer.
Mr Magiya remembers watching them pray behind their house before leaving.
“They were telling me, ‘Dad, let us pray for our hearts’ desires and to overcome the challenges we face,’” he continued.
Those words continue to echo in his mind. So does the feeling that something was wrong.
“I could feel that something was telling me, ‘don’t go,’” he said.
Yet the family continued with the journey.
The final journey
At the bus terminus, Mr Magiya easily noticed the driver.
“What surprised me was how happy the driver was. He was very happy. More than happy,” he said.
The family had travelled together many times before, visiting missions and churches across the country.
At Rothmans (near the intersection of Simon Mazorodze and Willowvale Road), they picked up another passenger, only identified as Chikaka, who would also lose his life in the accident.
Mr Magiya said the feeling of unease crept back in.
He considered abandoning the trip, but Chikaka persuaded him.
“Let’s just do one thing and go together,” he recalled.
Fate, however, intervened.
Another passenger offered to pay for him to travel separately by bus because of his health condition. He accepted.
That decision would save his life. It would also leave him carrying a burden of grief he struggles to describe.
As the family travelled ahead, he fell asleep.
Then came what he describes as a vision.
“I just slept, but in a vision, I was seeing something . . . ,” he said.
Soon afterwards, his phone rang.
His bishop had already arrived at the accident scene. Through a hymn book recovered from the wreckage, church leaders had identified the vehicle and its passengers. He would later arrive at the accident scene. Then came confirmation.
His children were among the victims.
“My boys, Tanaka and Talent . . . I could not breathe. I thought of carrying them. I didn’t know what to do.”
The devastation was overwhelming.
“People were screaming in the vehicle . . .”
Amid the chaos, there was a fleeting moment of hope. His wife was still alive.
“She shouted, ‘Help me! Help me!’”
Together with another church leader, he tried to rescue her.
But his wife’s injuries were severe.
“I noticed that there was a fracture and loss of too much blood,” he said.
She later died.
Questions without answers
Today, Mr Magiya still has a lot of questions that may never be fully answered.
He believes the load carried by the South African truck involved in the crash may have contributed to the tragedy.
“That load was not fastened,” he said.
Amid his staggering loss, his thoughts are always with his departed wife.
He described her as a pillar of strength who stood beside him through sickness, financial hardship and the uncertainty of the Covid-19 years.
“She was managing me. She used to encourage me a lot,” he said.
Even during the most difficult times, she remained steadfast.
“I got my wife from God . . .”
Then his thoughts turn once more to the children.
“They were bright children,” he said.
The surviving twins, Praise and Princess, are still trying to understand life without their mother.
“They still needed their mother. How will I manage?” he asked.
After a pause, he answered his own question.
“God will provide.”
A father and his children
Mr Magiya said he was always close to his children.
The family also believed in sharing.
For Stancia, a niece of the family, the trauma remains raw.
She was initially told that her mother had been involved in an accident.
By the time she arrived, she found herself identifying the bodies of family members.
“When I arrived, I saw my mother, my younger siblings and my brothers. All of them were dead . . . ,” said Stancia.
Her words capture the cruel finality of the tragedy — the moment when hope gives way to the unbearable certainty of loss.
The family neighbours are equally devastated.
Mrs Ellen Marire, who became a close friend of Mrs Magiya after moving to Dema, remembers a hardworking and resilient woman who encouraged others through difficult times.
“There are times when things are hard; times when you don’t even have cooking oil or soap. You reach a point where you have nothing. But Mrs Magiya would always encourage me,” she said.
The last time they spoke was before the church conference.
Mrs Marire was also travelling.
“I told her I was going to my uncle’s funeral and I would be back on Sunday, too.”
Mrs Magiya replied: “So, we will see each other on Monday.”
They never did.
A family learning to live again
Today, the family is drawing strength from the support it has received from the Government, church leaders, traditional leaders, neighbours and well-wishers.
Mr Magiya expressed gratitude for the assistance.
“The Government helped us a lot with enough food to feed everyone,” he said.
Yet he knows there are wounds that no amount of support can heal.
At the Magiya homestead, the graves are still fresh.
The memories are still vivid.
The pain is still overwhelming.
For Mr Magiya, faith remains the only path forward.
“We only need to pray more. I am already feeling that I need to be more prayerful,” he said.
He draws inspiration from the biblical story of Job. Unfortunately, for the Magiya family, the difficult journey of learning to live without a mother, a wife and five children has only just begun.
