John Magufuli - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Tanzanians go to the polls in 2025: President Samia has changed the landscape, but Magufuli’s legacy persists

IT'S been three years since the death of Tanzania’s president John Magufuli and the rise to power of the current president Samia Suluhu Hassan. Magufuli was Tanzania’s fifth president. He came to power in 2015 and was re-elected in 2020 in a poll that was marred by controversy. Magufuli brought lasting changes to Tanzania’s political landscape during his six-year tenure. His approach sparked differing opinions, both within the country and on the international stage. Inside the country, he was loved and loathed almost in equal measure. To his detractors, his administration was marked by a decline in political and civic…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Tanzania lifts ban on political rallies

NEWS

NUZULACK DAUSEN TANZANIA'S President Samia Suluhu Hassan lifted a ban on political rallies, six-and-a-half years after her predecessor John Magufuli imposed the measure which caused frequent run-ins between opposition leaders and police. Under the policy, which came into force in 2016, elected politicians were allowed to conduct rallies in their constituencies but other political rallies or protests were banned. "I am here to declare that the ban on political rallies has been lifted. It is the right of political parties to hold rallies but we all have responsibilities," Hassan told leaders of Tanzania's 19 registered political parties during a meeting…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

Tanzania’s Hassan has put out positive signals: deeper change is yet to come

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

AFTER the death of President John Magufuli on 17 March 2021, Vice-President Samia Suluhu Hassan became Tanzania’s sixth president and the first woman in the office. She may have been an “accidental president” but she seems to have set Tanzania on a change of course compared to the approach taken by her predecessor. Her government has enhanced diplomatic relations, approached the COVID-19 pandemic differently and increased the number of women in high political office. The extent to which this will bring institutional rather than merely rhetorical change is unclear. Detractors will point to her lack of commitment to broader constitutional…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Tanzania launches vaccination drive

COVID-19

TANZANIA’S President Samia Suluhu Hassan received her COVID-19 vaccine in public, in the most decisive signal yet of a break from the policies of her late predecessor who repeatedly dismissed the threat of the pandemic. Hassan took office after the death in March of former President John Magufuli, who had warned citizens against COVID-19 vaccines and recommended at-home remedies such as steam inhalation. Since then, the government has changed tack: officials now call for social distancing and emphasise mask-wearing in public. In June, Tanzania also joined the global COVAX scheme for sharing vaccines with poorer nations, culminating in the delivery…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Tanzania arrests leader of main opposition party

NEWS

TANZANIA’S main opposition party has revealed that its leader had been arrested with ten other party figures, in what it called proof that President Samia Suluhu Hassan was persisting with the authoritarianism of her late predecessor John Magufuli. The Chadema party said leader Freeman Mbowe and the others had been detained before dawn at a hotel in the lakeside city of Mwanza, where they had been planning to hold a meeting later on Wednesday to discuss proposals for a new constitution. The arrests followed the detention of dozens of other party members last week for holding a meeting without permission.…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Tanzania’s president warns of third wave

COVID-19

TANZANIA’S President Samia Suluhu Hassan has urged the public not to ignore a third wave of COVID-19, after her predecessor, the late John Magufuli, alarmed the world with his sceptical approach to the pandemic. Since Hassan took office after the death of Magufuli in March, the government has changed tack from downplaying the crisis to calling for social distancing and emphasising mask-wearing in public. There is currently no COVID-19 vaccination programme in Tanzania, but the country has applied to join COVAX vaccine-sharing facility and officials there are working with health partners to develop a deployment plan, the World Health Organization…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Tanzania to request to join COVAX

COVID-19

OMAR MOHAMMED TANZANIA hopes to join the COVAX global vaccine-sharing facility, the latest sign it has changed tack following the death in March of COVID-19- and vaccine-sceptic president John Magufuli. A World Health Organisation official said vaccines could arrive in the country of 58 million people within two weeks. Since taking office in March, new president Samia Suluhu Hassan has sought to gradually bring Tanzania into line with global public standards for tackling COVID-19. The country is one of only four in Africa that have yet to start vaccination campaigns, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Embassies in Tanzania can import vaccines

COVID-19

TANZANIA has announced that embassies and international agencies can import COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate their citizens and staff against the coronavirus. The move is part of a more proactive approach to tackling the disease following the death in March of President John Magufuli, who underplayed the pandemic and expressed scepticism of vaccines. The announcement came after experts presented President Samia Suluhu Hassan with a plan, including the issuing of vaccines in the country. "President Samia (Suluhu Hassan) said embassies and international organisations have been permitted to import COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate their own nationals and staff to meet their countries…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Tanzania goes back on decision to lift media ban

NEWS

TANZANIA has revised a decision to lift a ban on all media in the country, clarifying that only online television would benefit from the measure, a government spokesman said in a tweet. The country's new President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Tuesday that media banned under her late predecessor John Magufuli should be allowed to operate. Following on from an announcement that the government was forming a committee to research COVID-19, Tuesday's announcement appeared to indicate a change in course for the nation after Magufuli's death last month. Yet a day later, the decision, welcomed by local and international press…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Tanzania’s president reviews COVID-19 stance, lifts media ban

NEWS

TANZANIA’S new president Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday drew a line under her predecessor's controversial stances on COVID-19 and the media, indicating an apparent change in course for the nation after the death of John Magufuli last month. Hassan announced she was forming a committee to research whether Tanzania should follow the course taken by the rest of the world against the pandemic. "We cannot segregate ourselves like an island, but also we cannot blindly accept what is being brought forward to us (on COVID-19) without carrying out our own investigations and inputs," she told officials at State House in the…