John Magufuli in Pretoria in 2019
Photographer: Michele Spatari / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Michele Spatari / AFP / Getty Images
Tanzanian President John Magufuli, who has been widely criticized for denying the coronavirus pandemic, has died in a contested election just five months after winning a second term. He was 61.
“We have lost our courageous leader, President John Magufuli, who has died of heart disease,” Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on state television on Wednesday. She announced 14 days of national mourning.
Nicknamed ‘The Bulldozer’ for his aggressive leadership style, Magufuli won praise early on for tackling corruption, reducing wasteful government spending and improving farmers’ lives by abolishing dozens of taxes. He also led the development of new transportation links, power plants and more than 1,700 health centers, investments that helped the Tanzanian economy become one of the world’s best-performing countries.
Magufuli also enacted controversial reforms to ensure that the nation would benefit more from its natural resources, putting his government on a collision course with foreign mining companies. In 2017, authorities asked the local unit of Barrick Gold Corp. to pay a whopping $ 190 billion in tax bills – a dispute the company settled by paying $ 300 million and establishing a mining joint venture with the state.
Magufuli became increasingly authoritarian as his first term in office progressed – he centralized power during the presidency and brazenly cracked down on dissent and media freedom. He earned a second five-year term in October, earning 84% of the vote, the largest margin of victory of any presidential candidate in nearly three decades of Tanzania’s multiparty elections.
The opposition rejected the outcome as falsified and the US Embassy in Tanzania said credible allegations of fraud and intimidation, as well as the overwhelming victory of the ruling party, raised questions about the fairness of the election. Several opposition candidates were disqualified and the government shut down internet and social media sites that hindered the opposition’s campaigns.
Born on October 29, 1959 in the northwestern city of Chato, Magufuli worked as a teacher and industrial chemist before venturing into politics. He won parliamentary elections in 1995 and held several cabinet posts before the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party elected him as a candidate to succeed President Jakaya Kikwete in 2015.
International consternation over Magufuli’s rule has centered on his unorthodox approach to the Covid-19 approach. He insisted that the country was free of the disease, discouraged the use of face masks, and advised his people to pray and undergo steam therapy to protect their health. While most of the world was clamoring for access to vaccines, his government shunned them, saying it was in the process of 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 seriously downplayed what was clearly a major public health crisis.