Harare — MYSTERY surrounds the accident that claimed Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's wife Susan on Friday last week, with the American Embassy in Harare now denying ownership of the truck involved in the crash a few days after acknowledging that it was registered under the name of an official United States aid agency.

Yesterday, the American Embassy in Harare issued a statement saying the vehicle did not belong to the United States Agency for International Development.

However, on Monday the Americans told the media that they did, in fact, own the Nissan Diesel truck.

Furthermore, the truck's licence plate is 81TCE128, which according to the Central Vehicle Registry is a number configuration reserved for the United States Embassy in Zimbabwe.

Though police could, by last night, not say how far their investigations had gone, security officials confirmed that the truck was licensed under a US Embassy vehicle registration configuration.

A statement from the US Embassy said: "The truck that was involved in the accident with the Prime Minister's vehicle on Friday, March 6th does not belong to the United States Agency for International Development.

"It was purchased with Usaid funds by a contractor and belonged to the contractor. The contractor was delivering essential HIV and Aids drugs and medical supplies to health clinics under an effort co-financed by Usaid and the United Kingdom Department for International Development. The driver of the truck, a Zimbabwean national, was an employee of the contractor, not a Usaid employee."

But investigations so far by The Herald indicate that the contractor in question was Crown Agents, a British colonial company from 1749 to 1997 after which it was "privatised" and acted as a UK government company with mainly overseas business concerns.

It could not be established when Crown Agents -- who do not have an office in Zimbabwe -- hired Chinoona Mwanda, the driver of the truck on the fateful day.

At the weekend, Mwanda's lawyer, Mr Chris Mhike, told the media that the truck was owned by Usaid and was, at the time of the crash, carrying out business funded by the American agency.

Observers have questioned how the United States Embassy could not have any knowledge of the transporter responsible for carrying out their work in the country, especially when they were directly paying for the service along with the UK's DfID.

They said it did not make sense for the Americans to start denying ownership of the vehicle now when they had initially admitted it was theirs.

"How can they now issue a statement saying it is not their car? Why were they silent all this time? Surely, the embassy would know which vehicles it owns and it should not take them a whole week to determine whether or not it is a Usaid vehicle.

"Besides that, everyone knows that diplomatic registration plates numbered '81' are registered with the United States Embassy," noted one observer.

Member of Parliament Professor Jonathan Moyo, who has been at the forefront of questioning Usaid's involvement in the tragedy, said it was strange that the American Embassy was now trying to distance itself from ownership of the truck.

He said the latest pronouncement from the embassy made it all the more imperative for a commission of inquiry to determine what really happened last Friday.

"This issue cannot be simply settled on the basis of a statement from the American Embassy. What does the licence plate say? The registration (of the tuck) is so clear.

"The American Embassy today talks of a 'contractor' to tell us that they did not know of Crown Agents. They say they only know it from the Internet but that does not change anything.

"They paid Crown Agents to recruit the driver so they should know him. You cannot have a stranger driving your vehicle and their claims make the need for an inquiry into what happened even more necessary," Prof Moyo said.

The British and the Americans have over the past week been issuing statements that the

crash was "a genuine accident", prompting Prof Moyo to question why they want to consider themselves authorities on the matter.

Another observer said, "there were still more questions than answers" over Susan Tsvangirai's death.

"While we all agree with the Prime Minister that we should move on and we would want to let the family grieve in privacy, what happened on Friday begs for a commission of inquiry like Finance Minister (Tendai) Biti said," he observed.

Prof Moyo added that the "circumstances of the accident do not point any finger to Zanu-PF or state security agents and seem to point a lot to the British and the Americans".

Crown agents, historians say, were a group of people in the mould of Cecil John Rhodes who took it upon themselves to go around the world to spread the British monarch's sphere of influence for financial and ideological reasons.

The first crown agents left the British Isles around 1749 and the first time that they organised themselves as a unified group was in 1758.

The first recorded use of the term "Crown Agent", according to the company itself, was in 1833 and the company was subsequently registered in England and Wales as the Crown Agents for Overseas Governments and Administrations Ltd.

In 1997 the corporation was transferred to the private sector, as a limited company owned by the Crown Agents Foundation.

The company's website says they work directly with the UK and American governments among others.

It lists among its "permanent members" as British Overseas NGOs for Development Charities Aid Foundation, the Royal Commonwealth Society and the UK International Chamber of Commerce.

"Elected members" include the BBC World Service Trust and the Commonwealth Business Council as well as several other British-related organisations.