Last week, opposition politicians in Tanzania raised questions about the health of Tanzania’s COVID-19-denying president John Magufuli, as he was not seen in public for more than a week and at least one official close to him had died a few days before.
Magufuli was last seen in public on Feb. 27 at the swearing-in ceremony for the country’s secretary of state in the State House government offices in Dar es Salaam, the East African country’s largest city.
Magufuli’s absence was unusual as he was known for frequent public speeches and appearances on state television several times a week. Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu, in exile, questioned Magufuli’s whereabouts in a series of tweets.
The populist leader announced in June last year that Tanzania had defeated COVID-19 through three days of prayer. The country, one of Africa’s most populous with 60 million people, in April stopped providing statistics about the numbers of people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 or deaths from the disease to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The vice president Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday Wednesday announced the death of President Magufuli fronting that he succumbed to heart attack. According to our close sources in Tanzania, Magufuli had been in comma for over week since he was admitted to a hospital in Kenya.
Another source in Tanzania revealed to us that Pompe Magufuli has been sick for a long time and that recently his lower body parts (legs) had become so skinny compared to the upper body.
“It is with deep regret that I inform you that today on the 17th of March, 2021 at 6:00 pm we lost our brave leader, the President of the Republic of Tanzania, John Pombe Magufuli,” said vice-president Samia Suluhu Hassan.
