John Magufuli in Pretoria in 2019
Photographer: Michele Spatari / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Michele Spatari / AFP / Getty Images
Tanzanian President John Magufuli, who has drawn widespread criticism for denying the coronavirus pandemic, died just five months after winning a second term in the election. He was 61 years old.
“We have lost our brave leader, President John Magufuli, who died of heart disease,” Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Wednesday. She announced 14 days of national mourning.
Nicknamed the “Bulldozer” for his aggressive leadership style, Magufuli won early praise for fighting corruption, reducing wasteful government spending and improving the lives of peasant farmers by giving up dozens of taxes. He has also led the development of new transport links, power plants and more than 1,700 health centers, investments that have helped Tanzania’s economy become one of the best in the world.
Magufuli has also led controversial reforms aimed at ensuring the nation gets more benefits from its natural resources, which has put its administration on a collision path with foreign mining companies. In 2017, authorities asked the local unit of Barrick Gold Corp. to pay a staggering $ 190 billion bill – a dispute the company settled by paying $ 300 million and creating a joint venture with the state.
Magufuli became more and more authoritarian as his first term progressed – he centralized power in the presidency and unabashedly repressed dissent and freedom of the press. He won a second five-year term in October, when he won 84 percent of the vote, the highest margin of victory for any presidential candidate in nearly three decades of multi-party elections in Tanzania.
The opposition rejected the result as rigged, and the US Embassy in Tanzania said credible allegations of fraud and intimidation, as well as the ruling party’s overwhelming victory, raised questions about the fairness of the election. Several opposition candidates have been disqualified from office, and the government has ordered the closure of websites and social networks that have hampered its opponents’ campaigns.
Born on October 29, 1959, in the northwestern town of Chato, Magufuli worked as a professor and industrial chemist before venturing into politics. He won parliamentary elections in 1995 and held several cabinet positions before ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi elected him as a candidate for President Jakaya Kikwete’s succession in 2015.
International dismay at Magufuli’s rule focused on his unorthodox approach to the Covid-19 approach. He insisted the country was free of disease, discouraged the use of face masks and advised people to pray and follow a steam therapy to protect their health. While most of the rest of the world has demanded access to vaccines, his administration has avoided them and said it is working to develop alternative natural remedies.
Tanzania stopped publishing infection data in April 2020, making it impossible to determine the severity of the epidemic. The flood of patients with symptoms of coronavirus requiring treatment in public hospitals and daily funerals indicates that Magufuli has hardly reduced what was clearly a major public health crisis.