Dar es Salaam. Five journalists were confirmed dead on Tuesday following a deadly car crash that took place in the Nyamikoma area of Busega District, Simiyu region, South East of Lake Victoria.
They are Abel Ngapemba, who worked as Mwanza region information officer; Steven Msengi, Ukerewe district information officer; Johari Shani, a reporter with Uhuru Digital, Antony Chuwa a freelancer reporter and ITV Tanzania reporter Husna Mlanzi.
They are among the 14 people who died when the car they were in crashed with a Toyota Hiace, a passengers’ bus. The deceaseds were a part of the Mwanza regional commissioner Robert Gabriel’s entourage.
Busega district commissioner Gabriel Zakaria told Mwananchi newspaper on Tuesday that four journalists died on spot together with seven others, including the person who was driving them.
Others died on the way to the hospital while others died while receiving treatment at a nearby hospital.
Tuesday’s accident came hardly a week after another grisly road accident was reported to have occurred on the morning of January 3, 2021, in the village of Lidumbe, in the district of Newala, Mtwara region, southern of Tanzania, killing fourteen people.
Car crashes that involve government leaders’ entourages are common in Tanzania, with many associating the accidents with the speed with which the entourages travel.
In 2021, for example, a number of car crashes that involved government leaders’ entourages were reported.
They involve the entourages of Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, Ngorongoro district commissioner Albert Msando, and Mtwara regional commissioner Marco Gaguti to name but a few.
