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Salome Mbatia dies in road accident
2007-10-25 09:49:17
By Guardian Reporters
The deputy minister for Community Development, Gender and Children, Salome Mbatia (55), died yesterday evening in a motor accident that occurred at Ilembula in Njombe District, Iringa Region.
The Speaker of the National Assembly, Samwel Sitta, said that Minister Mbatia, her driver and another unidentified person died when their car was hit by a lorry which was overloaded with timber.
The Speaker said it was yet to be established whether the other person who died was the minister`s personal assistant or a government official from Iringa who had accompanied her.
``She was on a tour to sensitise women on bad traditions that contribute to maternal and child mortality,`` Sitta said. He added that both the Bunge Office and the Prime Minister’s Office expected to get more details on the incident today.
Meanwhile, Thobias Mwanakatwe of PST Mbeya has quoted the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives, Dr David Mathayo, who was at the scene of accident, as saying that the accident occurred at 5pm and involved the minister’s car and a lorry that was coming from Njombe and heading to Makambako.
Dr Mathayo said the lorry had a face to face collision with the minister`s car at Sankoti, after which the lorry crashed on top of the car, making the exercise to remove the bodies from the wreckage to be extremely difficult.
Mathayo was heading to Tunduru to begin a tour of Ruvuma Region. Reports from the area indicate that former Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye was also on the same tour with the late Mbatia.
The Iringa Regional Police Commander, Advocate Nyombi, said he was heading towards the scene of accident and would later on issue a statement. Bodies of the victims have been preserved at Kibena Hospital in Njombe.
The deceased minister was once the CCM national treasurer. She served as the CCM special seats MP until her death. She was awarded a Degree in Personnel Administration in the Netherlands in 1982.
In between 1982 and 1983 she undertook her MA in Management in the United States. She also held the post of deputy minister for Finance and Planning before being transferred to another ministry, a position she held until yesterday.
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