John Magufuli in Pretoria in 2019
Photographer: Michele Spatari / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Michele Spatari / AFP / Getty Images
Tanzanian President John Magufuli, who was widely criticized for his denial of the coronavirus pandemic, died just five months after winning a second term in a contested election. He was 61 years old.
“We have lost our brave leader, President John Magufuli, who has died of heart disease,” Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan told state television on Wednesday. He announced 14 days of national mourning.
Nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for his aggressive leadership style, Magufuli garnered early praise for fighting corruption, reducing useless government spending and improving the lives of farmers by giving up dozens of taxes. He also led the development of new transportation connections, power plants and more than 1,700 health centers, investments that helped Tanzania’s economy become one of the best companies in the world.
Magufuli also pushed for controversial reforms aimed at ensuring the nation gets a greater benefit from its natural resources, which put its administration on a collision path with foreign mining companies. In 2017, authorities asked the local Barrick Gold Corp unit to pay a huge $ 190 billion tax bill, a dispute the company resolved by paying $ 300 million and setting up a mining joint venture with the state.
Magufuli became increasingly authoritarian as he advanced his first term: he centralized power in the presidency and unabashedly repressed dissent and media freedom. He won a second five-year term in October, when he won 84% of the vote, the widest margin of victory of any presidential candidate in nearly three decades of multi-party elections in Tanzania.
The opposition rejected the result as a call, and the U.S. 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 were disqualified from running and the government instituted internet and social media closures that hampered their opponents ’campaigns.
Born on October 29, 1959, in the northwestern city of Chato, Magufuli worked as a professor and industrial chemist before venturing into politics. He won parliamentary elections in 1995 and held various cabinet positions before ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi elected him as a candidate to succeed President Jakaya Kikwete in 2015.
International dismay with the Magufuli government has focused on its unorthodox approach to dealing with Covid-19. He insisted the country was free of the disease, discouraged the use of facial masks and advised his people to pray and undergo steam therapy to safeguard their health. While most of the rest of the world claimed access to the vaccines, his administration shunned them and said it was working on developing alternative natural remedies.
Tanzania stopped publishing infection data in April 2020, making it impossible to determine the severity of the epidemic. The deluge of patients with coronavirus symptoms seeking treatment in public hospitals and daily funeral masses indicates that Magufuli severely downplayed what was clearly a major public health crisis.