Tanzanian President John Magufuli Dies At 61

The President of Tanzania, John Magufuli has died at 61 after weeks of uncertainty over his health and whereabouts. Tanzanian President John Magufuli Dies At 61

In a televised address to the nation on Wednesday night, the Vice President, Samia Suluhu Hassan said Magufuli had died of a “heart condition”, which he had suffered for 10 years at a hospital in Tanzania’s commercial city, Dar-Es-Salaam.

Magufuli’s main political rival, Tundu Lissu, alleged on the same Wednesday that Magufuli died that the president was suffering from COVID-19 and died of the disease. “This is a president whose denial of COVID-19, whose attempts to cover it up, whose adamant refusal to take any action to combat the pandemic, who has thumbed his nose to the world, refused any international or regional cooperation to deal with COVID-19 and now he goes down with COVID-19 — that is poetic justice to me,” Lisu said.

According to Magufuli critics, his decision to not put the country into lockdown, mocking masks and other social-distancing measures, caused thousands of unnecessary deaths in Tanzania. He had encouraged Tanzanians to pray in churches and mosques to defeat a “satanic” virus and refused free Covid-19 vaccines from the World Health Organization even as reports mounted of prominent figures falling to respiratory illnesses.

According to the Constitution of Tanzania, the Vice President, Hassan, 61, will assume the presidency for the remainder of the five-year term that Magufuli started serving in 2020 after winning a second term.

When Samia Suluhu who is the first-ever female Vice President of the country, is eventually sworn in, she will become the first-ever female President of Tanzania and the second female President in the East African sub-region.