Rumored To Have Contracted COVID-19, The President Of Tanzania, John Magufuli, Died Of Heart Disease

Presiden Tanzania John Magufuli. (Wikimedia Commons / Tanzania Prime Minister's Office, Government of India)

JAKARTA - Tanzanian President, John Magufuli, one of Africa's most prominent coronavirus skeptics, has died at the age of 61, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Wednesday after more than two weeks of absence from public life which led to speculation about his health.

“Dear Tanzanians, it is very sad to announce that today is March 17, 2021, at around 6 p.m. We lost our brave leader, President John Magufuli who died of heart disease at the Mzena hospital in Dar es Salaam where he is receiving treatment", said vice president on state television station TBC.

President John Magufuli, who had not seen in public since February 27, sparked rumors that he had contracted COVID-19. Officials denied on March 12 that he had fallen ill. He was the first president of Tanzania to die while still in his tenure.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said last Friday he had spoken to Magufuli, and blamed the president's disease narrative on some hateful Tanzanians living abroad.

Meanwhile, Tundu Lissu, Magufuli's main rival in the October election when the president won a second five-year term, has said Tanzania's Magufuli had been flown to Kenya for treatment of COVID-19 and then moved to India in a coma.

According to the Tanzanian Constitution, Vice President Hassan must take over the presidency for the remainder of the five-year term that Magufuli began serving last year, after winning a second term. She will become the East African nation's first female president.