Tanzania’s President John Magufuli who urged citizens ‘to pray coronavirus away’ has died

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has died at a hospital in Dar es Salaam, the country’s vice president announced in a televised address on Wednesday. He was 61.”President John Magufuli died of a heart ailment that he has battled for over 10 years,” Samia Suluhu Hassan said.She added that the president had been receiving treatment at Mzena hospital since Sunday, and announced 14 days of national mourning.Hassan is now the acting president of Tanzania. While a date for her swearing-in has not yet been announced, she will be Tanzania’s first female president.

After days of speculation that Magufuli was ill with Covid-19, the country’s Prime Minister dispelled the rumors last week. Magufuli, who usually made weekly public appearances at Sunday church services, had not been seen since February 27, fueling reports that he was ill and was being treated abroad.Kassim Majaliwa said he was surprised people were questioning the president’s whereabouts, adding that the leader was “fine and continuing with his daily activities,” as he spoke during a Friday prayer session at a mosque in the country’s Njombe region, according to state broadcaster Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation.

Known as “The Bulldozer” for his tough stance against corruption and for his hardline policies, Magufuli swept to victory in October 2015 as Tanzania’s fifth president.But excitement over Magufuli’s intolerance for corruption was shortlived as he began a clampdown on democracy and critical voices.Magufuli oversaw closures and suspensions of numerous media outlets, while his government undermined judicial and parliamentary independence, implemented a partial ban on public rallies, harassed MPs, closed online political space, and prosecuted critics under defamation and sedition laws.In June 2017 Magufuli announced that pregnant students would not be allowed to return to school after giving birth.”In my administration as the President no pregnant girl will go back to school… she has chosen that of kind life, let her take care of the child,” he said at a public rally in 2017.