Tanzanian President John Magufuli has died at the age of 61 of a heart disease, his vice president said in a speech on state television on Wednesday after days of uncertainty about his health and where he was.
“It is with great regret that I inform you that today, 17 March 2021, at 6 pm, we lost our brave leader, the President of the Republic of Tanzania, John Pombe Magufuli,” said Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
She said Magufuli had died of a “heart disease”, which he had suffered for a decade, at a hospital in Dar es Salaam.
He had first been granted brief admission to the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute on March 6, but was subsequently discharged, Hassan said.
But Magufuli had felt unwell again and rushed to the hospital again on March 14.
The confirmation of Magufuli’s death comes after weeks of uncertainty and wild rumors about his absence, as he was last seen in public on February 27.
Opposition leader Tundu Lissu had questioned his health and quoted sources as saying that the president was suffering from COVID-19.
Magufuli, who was first elected in 2015 and then again in a controversial vote last year, had for several months insisted that the virus no longer existed in Tanzania and had been averted by prayer.
He refused to wear a face mask or take locking measures.
But a week before he was last seen, Magufuli admitted that the virus was still circulating, after the vice president of the semi-autonomous Zanzibar was revealed to have died of COVID-19.
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