Mbatia`s body received in Dar

Husband of the late Salome Mbatia Deputy Minister for Community Development Gender and Children Dr Joseph and Children Charles, Yolanda, Philip and Joseph Jr. during the last respect in Dar es Salaam today


The body of Deputy Minister for Community Development had landed at Julius Nyerere Airport in Dar es Salaam.

PRESIDENT Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete yesterday led thousands of mourners who flocked the airport to receive the body of Deputy Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children Salome Mbatia (55), who died in a ghastly road accident in Njombe on Wednesday.

Mourners could not help but to shed tears when they saw the plane which ferried the body land at Julius Nyerere Airport in Dar es Salaam.

Cabinet ministers and Members of Parliament were also at the airport to receive the body, which arrived at around 14:15 pm in a Fokker plane.

Aboard the aircraft was the husband, Dr Joseph Mbatia, Vice President Mohamed Shein, Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and Speaker of the National Assembly Samuel Sitta.
No sooner had the plane landed when a group of six deputy ministers entered the airplane and came out with the casket bearing the body.

The coffin was then placed inside a military ambulance, and the motorcade then sped to Lugalo Military Hospital, where the body was preserved.

According to the Chairman of Funeral Committee, Andrew Chenge, the body will remain at Lugalo Military Hospital until this morning and would later be taken to her residence at Oyster Bay, House Number 120, Uganda Avenue in the city.

At around 2:00 pm, the body will be flown to Kilimanjaro for a funeral set to take place at Kirua.

Speaking to The Guardian yesterday, Paul Eranga, an assistant to the departed minister, said he had received reports of her death with great shock.

`I have worked with her for almost a year now. I was shocked to hear that she was dead. Salome was a hard working person who did not allow any negligence,` he said.

He said he had worked closely with the deputy minister, especially on parliamentary matters, adding that it was hard to believe that Salome Mbatia was no longer in this world.

For her part, the minister for Finance, Zakhia Meghji, said Salome Mbatia`s death was rather shocking in view of a flurry of road accidents taking place nowadays.

She said much as the occurrence was tragic, it was God`s plan and no human being could have prevented it.
The deceased minister was once the CCM national treasurer.

She also served as the CCM special seats MP. She was awarded a degree in Personnel Administration in Netherlands in 1982 and later undertook her MA in Management in the United States. She also held the post of deputy minister for Finance and Planning before she was transferred to another ministry, a post she held until her death.

Salome Mbatia and three others died on Wednesday in a road accident at Kibena in Njombe District, Iringa Region after their car was hit head-on by a lorry which was overloaded with timber.