Tanzania’s Vice President Hassan to Be the First East African Female President
According to Tanzania’s Constitution, Vice President Hassan, 61, should assume the presidency for the remainder of the five-year term that Magufuli began serving last year after winning a second term. She would be the East African nation’s first female president.
Born in the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar, Hassan studied economics in Britain, worked for the U.N.’s World Food Programme and then held various government posts prior to becoming Tanzania’s first female vice president in 2015.
Hassan said Magufuli was admitted on March 6 to Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute for heart problems and discharged the next day. A week later he felt bad and was rushed to Mzena hospital where he was getting treatment under supervision of doctors from the cardiac institute, she said.
In Dar es Salaam, the country’s commercial capital with more than two million residents, the streets were empty when news of Magufuli’s death was announced just before midnight.
“I remember him since his days when he was minister of works and then he became president, a president who worked hard that even if you didn’t agree with him it got to a point that you agreed with him. I appreciated him, he did a really good job,” one man, Patrice Tarimo, said in Dar es Salaam after hearing the news.
Nicknamed “The Bulldozer” because of his reputation for pushing through policies despite opposition, Magufuli frustrated the World Health Organization (WHO) during the pandemic by playing down the threat from COVID-19, saying god and remedies such as steam inhalation would protect Tanzanians.
The former chemistry teacher had mocked coronavirus tests, denounced vaccines as part of a Western conspiracy to take Africa’s wealth, and opposed mask-wearing and social distancing.
Tanzania stopped reporting coronavirus data in May last year when it had reported 509 cases and 21 deaths, according to the WHO, which has urged the government to be more transparent.
He was re-elected for a second term in 2020, winning 84% of the vote in an election the opposition said was marred by irregularities and whose results it rejected.
