- The president of Tanzania, John Magufuli, has not been seen for 17 days, causing rumors about his health.
- Magufuli declared Tanzania Covid-free last May and stopped releasing data. He rejected vaccines.
- Media reports and allegations of an opposition figure have led to rumors that he is seriously ill with Covid-19.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Dar es Salaam – Tanzanian President John Magufuli, Africa’s leading Covid-19 denier, disappeared from public view 17 days ago. There are widespread rumors that he is seriously ill with the same virus he has discharged and killed in the past year.
Last May, Magufuli declared that ‘Tanzania has struck coronavirus’ after ordering three days of national prayer. The president abruptly stopped the number of cases and assured foreign tourists that Tanzania’s game reserves and resorts for Indian Ocean were open for business, leading to a wave of travel advice urging travelers to avoid the country.
Since then, he has mocked masks, criticized critical neighbors for locking up and rejected coronavirus vaccines until his government independently confirms them. In early January, Magufuli told visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that “there is no coronavirus in Tanzania.”
After Magufuli appeared at an event in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s capital, on February 24, Magufuli disappeared from public view.
The leading newspaper in neighboring Kenya, the Daily Nation, wrote this week: ‘The leader of an African country that has not appeared in public for almost two weeks is being admitted to Nairobi Hospital for Covid-19 treatment , even though his government remains mom. about where he is. ‘
It was speculated within hours that Magufuli had been secretly flown to Nairobi for medical emergencies and later transported by helicopter for treatment in India. Insider could not confirm these reports.
“Latest update from Nairobi,” Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu tweeted this week.
—Tundu Antiphas Lissu (@TunduALissu) 10 March 2021
Contacted by Insider, Lissu reiterates the claim but does not provide evidence.
“Over the past month, the country has lost university professors, army generals, doctors, lawyers, engineers and other professionals with a high public reputation,” Lissu told Insider. “It is highly irresponsible and in my opinion criminal law for the president to continue to deny the presence of coronavirus, reject international aid and reject the vaccines.”
Numerous Tanzanians and neighboring Kenyans have been urging on social media to demand answers, with the hashtag #WhereIsMagufuli appearing on Twitter in both countries.
On Friday, government officials addressed the rumor for the first time, insisting that Magufuli was alive but provided no evidence.
In the streets of Dar es Salaam, some wore masks to protect them from Covid-19, but many did not.
ERICKY BONIPHACE / AFP via Getty Images
“President Magufuli is in good health and is continuing his normal duties,” Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said in a statement from his office. “I spoke to him (Magufuli) today and he sends his greetings to you,” Majaliwa insisted.
In a separate announcement, the commander of the southern Tanzanian region of Mbeya, Albert Chalamila, told reporters on Friday: “I spoke to President John Magufuli on the phone this morning … he is very strong and will continue his work.”
“WE WANT AN EXPLANATION, NOT A THREAT”
Tanzania confirmed its first case of coronavirus in March 2020, but a month later Magufuli – who has a PhD in chemistry – questioned the accuracy of the test results. The successive cases reached 480 people and 16 people died of the coronavirus on April 29, but Magufuli ordered the country’s health ministry to stop releasing updates.
On 27 February, three days after his last public appearance, the government announced that Magufuli had presided over the oath of a senior official and attended a virtual regional summit for the East African Community Trade Union (EAC) bloc.
It was later revealed that Magufuli did not actually attend the EAC summit, and was rather represented by his vice president, Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Since then, Magufuli has remained conspicuously absent from public view, and has missed his usual Sunday church attendance for two consecutive weeks, a strangeness to the devout Catholic.
Mourners carrying the body of Zanzibar’s Vice President, Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad, in Dar es Salaam on 18 February 2021.
AFP via Getty Images
In the streets of Dar es Salaam, the inexplicable absence of Magufuli was a source of concern and frustration for many residents in the city.
“Instead of telling us the truth about Magufuli’s place, government ministers have made threats against social media users. We want an explanation, not threats,” Innocent Mushi, a taxi driver, told Insider.
The death last month of Zanzibar’s first vice president, Seif Sharif Hamad, days after announcing he was admitted to hospital with the virus, and the death of Magufuli’s general secretary at the State House and head of the civil service, John Kijazi an unspecified disease that has been exposed. how many concerns were the true extent of the pandemic.
“I renew my call for Tanzania to start reporting COVID-19 cases and sharing data,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement on February 20. to break the chains of transmission, and to prepare for vaccination. ‘
Local hospitals have been reported to be overrun by patients showing Covid-19 symptoms, and that there is a shortage of beds, oxygen and critical care fans in major towns and cities in the country. The government denies these reports.
Unlike other countries in East Africa, which encouraged social distribution and the use of masks, it was as usual in Tanzania. Public buses were full of passengers, with few masks, while pubs and nightclubs were full of revelers. Local league matches at football stadiums and music festivals continue across the country, usually full of capacity.
People lined up to wash their hands with chlorinated water in Dar es Salaam on March 16, 2020, hours after Tanzania announced its first case of Covid-19.
ERICKY BONIPHACE / AFP via Getty Images
Magufuli continued to avoid modern medicine and prevention methods, such as wearing masks and taking social distances. Instead, he aggressively promoted unproven traditional remedies like steam inhalation and a ginger-garlic-onion lemon drink as the government’s official treatment and prevention of the virus.
Some hospitals have included these drugs in their treatment protocols for patients who show coronavirus symptoms.
PRAYERS, STEAMS AND HERBS
During his five years in power, Magufuli ruled Tanzania with an iron fist, as opposed to his softer touch, Jakaya Kikwete, and transformed the once prosperous East African nation of 60 million people into one of Africa’s more oppressive and mysterious states. critics. .
Under his leadership, the government arrested opposition leaders and activists and curtailed protests. In 2017, it closed a weekly newspaper. Only the president and three other public officials are authorized to issue information on Covid infections and talk about the pandemic.
In January, Magufuli rejected coronavirus vaccines because other countries around the world scrambled for the vaccinations, saying he would not allow his countrymen to be used as guinea pigs. “Vaccinations are not good. If white people could have brought these vaccines with them, they would have brought vaccinations for AIDS, cancer or malaria,” he said in a speech.
Tundu Lissu, Tanzania’s opposition leader, on 4 August 2020
STR / AFP via Getty Images
Government spokesman Hassan Abbasi withdrew last month from allegations that Tanzania was virus-free, changing the new official story to ‘we controlled the virus’.
Roman Catholic and Lutheran church leaders have been pushing back against Magufuli’s virus denial in recent weeks, urging the government to take the disease seriously.
Earlier this month, Charles Kitima, who leads an association of Catholic bishops, told reporters in Dar es Salaam that more than 25 priests and 60 nuns had died across the country in the past two months due to various causes, including ‘ breathing problems’. which has become a euphemism for coronavirus.
Opposition leader Lissu made the most of the moment.
‘It’s a sad remark about (Magufuli)’s stewardship over our country that it came to this: that he himself had to get COVID-19 and be flown to Kenya to prove that prayers, steam inhalations and other unproven herbal concoctions that he advocated. is no protection against coronavirus, ”he said on Twitter.