President John Magufuli of Tanzania has not been seen in public for over two weeks. The populist leader, known as someone who thinks many corona measures are exaggerated, is usually unavoidable from state television. But he has not appeared on TV since February 27, and the president has not attended public gatherings.
It is rumored among Tanzanians that Magufuli has been affected by the corona virus and is seriously ill. Vice President Samia Suluhu tried to calm the unrest in the country yesterday. The East African country is safe, she said at a meeting, but hardly anything was said about the president’s condition.
“It’s normal for a person to be put to the test, often by a cold and the flu, or whatever,” she said. “It is an important time for Tanzanians to remain united. And it is not the time to listen to outside information that will confuse or divide us.”
Arrests
Still, it seems that the situation surrounding the 61-year-old president is making authorities nervous. Police have arrested four people in recent days for spreading “rumors on social media,” the BBC reports.
Last week, Prime Minister Majaliwa stated that Magufuli was doing fine and that he was busy. The prime minister called the rumors about the president’s condition “hatred” of Tanzanians abroad. That explanation was of little use to the Tanzanian population.
Opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who lost the elections to Magufuli in October and lives in exile in Belgium, claimed on social media that the president is in bad shape. He was reportedly taken to a private hospital in Kenya for his corona infection and taken to India in a coma for further treatment.
Annoyance at the WHO
Tanzania’s attitude has led to a lot of frustration at the World Health Organization. The country stopped keeping data on the corona virus in May last year. Then the counter stood at 509 infections and 21 deaths. The American embassy in Tanzania previously sounded the alarm, fearing that health institutions will no longer have the number of infections to manage.
Former chemistry teacher Magufuli previously said he had seen nothing in corona tests, opposed keeping his distance and wearing mouth masks, and called vaccines “a Western conspiracy to take the wealth of Africa.” He said he believed Tanzania would be protected by God and resources like steam inhalation.
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