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Wednesday March 17, 2021
To update
Crown deniers in the presidential office
Tanzania’s head of state, Magufuli, dies
He wanted to fight Corona with prayers and steam baths, he deliberately ignored the number of new infections in his country. Now the controversial President of Tanzania, John Magufuli, has died. Before that, he had disappeared from the scene for a long time.
Tanzanian President John Magufuli died Wednesday of heart failure at a Dar es Salaam hospital, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said. His long absence had fueled public speculation about the illness of the head of state, who has held the post since 2015. The 61-year-old had long denied the existence of Covid-19 in the East African country and downplayed the risk of the corona virus. The former German colony with its around 58 million inhabitants has not released new infection figures since May 2020.
According to Hassan, the president suffered from a chronic cardiac arrhythmia. This was diagnosed more than ten years ago. Magufuli was recently hospitalized for this reason, discharged and readmitted on Sunday after his condition worsened, he said. Hassan announced a 14-day mourning period. Under the constitution, he will now assume the highest office in the country until the next election in 2025.
Magufuli’s handling of the corona pandemic had caused criticism and concern both in his home country and internationally. He questioned the credibility of the corona tests and recommended prayers and steam baths. Magufuli, sometimes called the “bulldozer” because of his uncompromising leadership style, urged the Health Ministry to be careful about vaccines developed abroad and questioned how they could have been developed so quickly. Unlike many other African countries, where foreign tourists arriving by plane had to be quarantined for several days last year, it opened the East African country to tourism.
Celebrated and feared
The exiled opposition politician Tundu Lissu It recently sparked speculation on Twitter about Magufuli’s Covid-19 disease. “With his devastated denial of Covid, his madness of prayer rather than science has proven to be a deadly boomerang,” he wrote. According to his information, Magufuli was seriously ill and was first taken to a hospital in the Kenyan capital Nairobi for treatment and then to India. Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, however, rejected speculation about the Covid-19 disease and said that the president was continuing to work on plans for the country’s development.
Magufuli polarized in the East African country. He received support from proponents, among other things, because of his strong and uncompromising leadership style, large infrastructure projects, and promises to fight corruption. However, critics condemned his increasing restrictions on press freedom and free speech, as well as his handling of the corona pandemic. Tanzania’s human rights record has steadily deteriorated under Magufuli, judged the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“This is an unprecedented moment for the United Republic of Tanzania and it will certainly move us all in a very personal way,” opposition leader Zitto Kabwe said after Magufuli’s death. The president will be remembered for his contribution to the development of Tanzania. The United States government expressed its condolences to the people of Tanzania. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States will continue to support the people of Tanzania to defend respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the fight against the pandemic. “We hope that Tanzania will continue to move on the path of democracy and prosperity,” he said. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted after Magufuli’s death: “My thoughts are with his loved ones and the people of Tanzania.”
Magufuli was born on October 29, 1959 in the western district of Chato and first became a professor before earning his doctorate in chemistry at the University of Dar es Salaam and then turning to politics.
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