Car crash in South Africa kills UW employee, family

A multi-car accident in South Africa Wednesday afternoon claimed the life of a family of four stationed in the region as part of a UW–Madison international program.

Scott Kloeck-Jenson

Scott Kloeck-Jenson, 34, a UW–Madison Ph.D. candidate and leader of a Land Tenure Center program in Mozambique, was killed in the accident. Also killed was Scott’s wife, Barbara, 34, their daughter Zoe, 5, and their son Noah, 2.

The three-vehicle accident occurred at roughly 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday (8:45 a.m. Central Standard Time) near the South African town of Hazy View, close to the Mozambique border. The Kloeck-Jenson car was stopped at an intersection when it was struck from behind by another car. The impact pushed the car into the intersection and the path of an oncoming truck, according to officials from South Africa’s U.S. Embassy in Johannesburg. All four family members were killed at the scene, officials said.

“The many people on campus who knew the Kloeck-Jenson family are shocked and grief-stricken by this event,” said Kurt Brown, head of publications for LTC and friend of the family. “Scott was a very joyous, playful, bright person who made himself well-liked by everyone around him.”

Barbara was a pre-school educator who, while in Mozambique, was running a nursery school program in the capitol city of Maputo. She was also a teaching supervisor for a UW–Madison day care program from 1993 to 1995. She and Scott met while working as Peace Corps volunteers in the late 1980s in the southern African nation of Lesotho.

Brown said the family was planning to return to Madison in January, when Scott would finish writing his dissertation.

A native of Minnesota, Scott received his master’s degree in political science from UW–Madison in 1993. He also graduated magna cum laude from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., in 1987.

Michael Schatzberg, a political science professor and Scott’s doctoral adviser, said Scott was analyzing the role of non-governmental organizations on the sovereignty of Mozambique.

“Scott felt a mission to serve people around him in a practical way,” Schatzberg said. “Serving people was something he took very seriously and he was good at it.”

Scott was first in Mozambique conducting field work from November 1995 to January 1997, and was asked to run the LTC program beginning in June 1997.

Arrangements are being made through the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to fly the bodies back to family members in Minnesota, Brown said.

The Mozambique program, like the majority operated by the Land Tenure Center, is financially supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). It began in 1993 to advise the government about the privatization of state farms in the former socialist nation. It now focuses helping small-scale farmers gain access and secure rights to land. About a half-dozen people work on the project.

Created in 1962, the LTC helps developing countries promote sustainable land development, equitable access to natural resources and democratic land rights. It has done development work in more than 75 countries.