Tanzania's President John Magufuli dead at 61

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli, one of Africa’s most prominent coronavirus sceptics, has died aged 61, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Wednesday after a more than two-week absence from public life that led to speculation about his health.

She said he died from the heart disease that had plagued him for a decade. She said burial arrangements were under way and announced 14 days of mourning and the flying of flags at half staff. State television broadcast mournful and religious songs.

Magufuli had not been seen in public since Feb. 27, sparking rumors that he had contracted COVID-19. Officials denied on March 12 that he had fallen ill and on Monday the vice president urged Tanzanians not to listen to rumors from outside the country and said it was normal for a human being to be checked for the flu or fever.

“Dear Tanzanians, it is sad to announce that today 17 March 2021 around 6 p.m. we lost our brave leader, President John Magufuli, who died from heart disease at Mzena hospital in Dar es Salaam where he was getting treatment,” the vice president said on state broadcaster TBC.

Residents watch the television announcement of the death of Tanzania's President John Magufuli, addressed by Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on March 18, 2021.

He was Tanzania’s first president to die while in office. Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Friday that he had spoken to Magufuli, and blamed the narrative of the president’s ailment on some “hateful” Tanzanians living abroad.

Tundu Lissu, Magufuli’s main rival in the October election when the president won a second five-year term, had suggested Tanzania’s leader had been flown to Kenya for treatment for COVID-19 and then moved to India in a coma.

After the death was announced, opposition leader Zitto Kabwe said he had spoken to Vice President Hassan to offer condolences for Magufuli’s death. “The nation will remember him for his contribution to the development of our country,” Kabwe said in a statement published on Twitter.

According to Tanzania’s Constitution, Vice President Hassan, 61, should assume the presidency for the remainder of the five-year term that Magufuli began serving last year after winning a second term. She would be the East African nation’s first female president.

SS