After the death of the president who denies Covid, Tanzania can turn the policy of the pandemic

Crowds gathered at Mr Magufuli’s official residence on Thursday, carrying wreaths and party flags and singing religious songs on the first of 14 official mourning days. Tanzania’s government has not made any further statement as Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced on state television late Wednesday that Mr. Magufuli died of a heart condition that had plagued him for ten years.

Opposition leaders and diplomats in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city, have been saying for days that the 61-year-old Magufuli disappeared from public view 12 days ago after contracting the coronavirus following the sudden death of five members of his cabinet.

Me. Hassan, now elected president, would be the first female president of Tanzania.

The confirmation of the death of mr. Magufuli magnifies the paradox of the coronavirus pandemic in Africa, a continent that has registered fewer cases compared to elsewhere in the world, but where several prominent leaders have died unexpectedly from coronavirus-like symptoms.

Africa’s 54 countries, with a population of about 1.3 billion, reported only four million cases and about 100,000 deaths, well behind the U.S. count of 29.6 million cases and 538,000 deaths among a population of about 328 million. But the continent has lost more senior leaders due to coronavirus-related complications than anywhere else in the world.

In neighboring Burundi, longtime leader Pierre Nkurunziza died unexpectedly last year of symptoms such as coronavirus, while his wife was transported to a hospital in Nairobi to be treated for coronavirus. The vice-president of Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island group Zanzibar, Seif Sharif Hamad, died last month after his party announced that he had tested positive for the virus. Uganda’s deputy prime minister and Eswatini’s prime minister also died of the virus last year.

Despite the increase in high-profile cases, the death of Mr. Magufuli at a time when his brand of Covid skepticism is flourishing in the poorest states of the region.

Burundi’s health minister said last month that his country did not need Covid-19 vaccines because the majority of patients were recovering. Eritrea and Madagascar also turned down the vaccines, with Madagascar president Andry Rajoelina promoting a locally produced herbal remedy.

Vaccine skepticism exacerbates the gaping supply gap in Africa, with less than one dose for 100 people by the end of February, compared with 31 doses for 100 people in the UK and 22 per 100 in the US, according to data compiled by Oxford University is.

Diplomats and policy analysts in Tanzania say the key question for the gold-producing nation is whether the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party has a smooth transition to Ms. Hassan can get it right.

The populist Mr Magufuli, known as ‘the bulldozer’ for his no-nonsense approach to corruption and poverty reduction, centralized the power around his personal authority. He won the election comfortably in October, with me. Hassan who played a small role as his running mate.

“We do not expect Ms. Suhulu nie [Hassan] to reverse the government’s response immediately and impose strict Covid-19 restrictions, but she is likely to do so gradually in the coming months, said Zaynab Mohamed, a Tanzanian analyst at NKC African Economics. “If she makes drastic changes quickly, it can have a negative effect on her.”

The ruling party said it would not challenge President Hassan’s oath in the coming days, but opposition leaders demanded that she swear immediately and warned that the constitution did not provide for a continuing power vacuum.

In the past few weeks, Mr. Magufuli to start introducing public health measures to curb the disease, including wearing masks, after a spate of high deaths. But the country continued to refuse to share the number of cases of coronavirus with the World Health Organization, which stopped it almost a year ago.

Despite his coronavirus attitude and an increasing struggle for rights and freedoms that made him an international pariah, Mr. Magufuli has remained popular at home, especially in rural communities that have benefited from one of Africa’s highest growth rates in recent years. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital, numerous residents gathered in cafes and restaurants and outside on street corners to see news of his death. Some cried as they watched the news bulletins.

Some analysts have said that Hassan, which has fewer political constituencies, will find it more difficult to continue Magufuli’s confrontation with international mining companies.

“Investors will be watching closely for signs that Magufuli’s replacement will sustain or deviate from the former president’s resource nationalist path,” said Ed Hobey-Hamsher, an analyst at risk analysis firm Verisk Maplecroft.

Barrick Gold Corp’s

CEO Mark Bristow, who spent years with Mr. Magufuli wrestled over a sensational tax shuffle in 2017 that led to the company paying $ 300 million, expressing its condolences to the Tanzanian people and describing the late leader as a visionary statesman. ”

Mr. Magufuli’s contradictory approach to the pandemic has particularly irritated Washington, Tanzania’s largest health and security donor, which has invested about $ 4.9 billion in its health sector over the past two decades.

Tanzanian authorities shut down a television station last summer for reporting on a U.S. embassy statement warning of increasing cases of coronavirus across the country. Weeks later, Mr. Magufuli accused the embassy of exaggerating the health crisis and warned citizens against accepting US donations of items such as masks and other medical supplies.

Since Mr. Magufuli insisted that his country was coronavirus free, the US opposed him several times and strained him. Days before the death of the Vice President of Zanzibar, the US Embassy once again warned of a significant increase in cases of coronavirus in Tanzania. Days later, the general secretary of mr. Magufuli unexpectedly and creates panic within government circles.

The US State Department on Thursday expressed condolences after the death of Mr. Magufuli and promised to support Tanzania in fighting the pandemic.

Write to Nicholas Bariyo by [email protected]