Samia Suluhu Hassan said Magufuli was receiving treatment at a Tanzanian hospital when he died Wednesday night.
Opposition leaders, however, maintain that Magufuli died of Covid-19 at least one week earlier.
Tundu Lissu, of the Chadema opposition party, said in an interview with a Kenyan broadcaster on Thursday that Magufuli died at Covid in early March.
“I received news of President Magufuli’s passing without any surprise,” he added.
“I have always expected this from the first day I tweeted on March 7 … when I asked the question ‘Where is President Magufuli and what is his state of health’? I had information from many credible sources in the government that the “President was seriously ill with Covid-19 and that his situation was actually very bad,” Lissu said of his base in Belgium. CNN contacted Lissu for further comment.
CNN could not independently confirm its claims. Tanzanian authorities also did not respond to calls for comment on Lissu’s claims.
The mystery and mystery surrounding his death tell of Magufuli’s lasting legacy, says Maria Sarungi Tsehai, activist and founder of the #ChangeTanzania movement, a civil society group that promotes freedom of speech.
Tsehai said the circumstances of his death and the “secrecy and intimidation” that citizens face because they speculate or discuss it, “are very telling about the kind of presidency he has held.”
“Even now in his death, people are still terrified and speak in a subdued tone,” Tsehai said.
Magufuli was Tanzania’s fifth president and part of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party that has ruled the country since independence in 1961.
The last figure of 509 cases and 21 deaths was in April last year.
Magufuli has frustrated global health leaders after suspending nationwide detection of Covid cases – and blaming the country’s infection toll on defective test kits.
Magufuli’s death has raised many questions about how the country is moving forward in a pandemic with a huge information vacuum.
Magufuli made no bid on Covid vaccines, as he investigated its safety and instead promoted the use of prayers, herbal treatments and steam inhalation to combat the disease.
Tsehai says the lack of information makes it difficult for health workers and citizens to know what the real situation is. Her organization conducted an informal survey to get a “screenshot” of the Covid situation in the country last year.
“We are seeing more deaths, death announcements and more people leaving us. There are elderly people and those in their fifties. Parents also tell us that children are admitted to hospital with breathing problems,” she said.
However, changes are far from imminent, Tsehai added. “Nothing will happen immediately. We have to wait and see what Samia (Hassan) can do.”
Hassan was sworn in as the country’s first female president on Friday.
The new leader must elect a vice presidential candidate and form a cabinet, Tsehai said.
“We are very worried. She has to perform now. The ceremony and funeral and the last ceremony will be Covid super-scattering,” Tsehai added.
Fight Covid with prayers
Magufuli was devoutly religious and a rabid Covid-19 denier who repeatedly underestimated the seriousness of Covid-19 in Tanzania, while declaring the country free of the virus last June after three days of massacre.
“Let’s pray and fast for three days. I’m sure we will win … today for the Muslims who have already started, tomorrow the Seventh-day Adventists who pray for Christians on Saturdays and Sundays,” Magufuli said on 19 February.
“God never left this nation. We won last year and graduated to middle income status amid coronavirus,” he added.
Deus Valentine Rweyemamu, who heads the Center for Strategic Litigation, a pro-democracy movement in Tanzania, told CNN that Magufuli could not provide guidance in dealing with the pandemic.
“President Magufuli hid behind religious fundamentalism and managed to lead an entire nation to denial. His only recorded public speech on Covid consists of half of Bible verses,” Rweyemamu said.
Religious leaders, however, were one of his fiercest critics.
Father Charles Kitima, secretary of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference, a group of Catholic bishops, told CNN on Thursday that the Magufuli regime had not taken urgent steps to deal with the coronavirus.
Kitima, who was an outspoken critic of Tanzania’s Covid response under Magufuli, said some members of the Catholic Church in Tanzania may have died from Covid – related complications.
“Some members of the church had breathing problems and died from it,” he told CNN.
“As for the months from mid-December 2020 to February 2021., we lost 25 priests and 60 nuns. Some of them died due to breathing problems,” he said.
He added that the number of infections in the country could not be determined due to the lack of tests.
Kitima is to blame for Magufuli’s Covid response, which relied heavily on religion while failing to make scientific recommendations.
“You cannot separate prayer from science. Religion is there to support doctors and researchers. Science and religion must work together,” Kitima told CNN.
Rweyemamu told CNN that many Tanzanians trust Magufuli’s – albeit unconventional – methods.
“If President Magufuli were to appear in public with a mask on, even the sickest dog in Tanzania would wear one. That is because … Tanzanians believe more in their president than in their own parents,” he added.
Mussa Khamis, a project officer for Good Neighbors, a non-profit humanitarian organization in Tanzania, told CNN: ‘While some of my friends and family members were inhaling steam to fight this pandemic … I took care of myself through preventative measures observed by WHO and other medical experts. ‘
The 26-year-old resident of Tanzania’s semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar has said that the existence of Covid-19 is beginning to resonate with many Tanzanians following the death of Zanzibar’s vice president, Seif Sharif Hamad, who died in February after he contracted the virus.
Hamad was open about his illness, which he made public three weeks before his death.
“People are now wearing masks and washing their hands regularly. I think that is motivated by the recent loss of our vice president,” Khamis said.
The end of the Magufuli era is expected to usher in a new national perspective on Covid-19.
However, it remains to be seen whether this will do business for Tanzania’s new leader as usual, or whether she will change her mind and make room for science to flourish as the pandemic rages.