TANZANIA’S SAMIA SULUHU HASSAN TO MAKE HISTORY AS FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT

Fri 19 March 2021:

Tanzania’s Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan will be sworn in on as president on Friday, following the death of John Magufuli.

Hassan, 61, was sworn in at State House in the country’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam. She assumes the presidency following Wednesday’s announcement of the death of Magufuli, after a more than a two-week absence from public life that drew speculation about his health.

In a statement, the presidency said Hassan would address the nation after being sworn in and would also hold a cabinet meeting.

The absence of Magufuli, Africa’s most vehement COVID-19 skeptic, since Feb. 27 had fuelled speculation about his health and sparked rumors he had contracted the disease, although officials had denied he was ill. Hassan said he had died of heart disease.

From Friday, Suluhu Hassan becomes the 6th president and first female head of the state of Tanzania.

She was elected vice president alongside Magufuli in 2015 and again last year.

Although the 2020 poll was disputed by the opposition, the official result gave the pair 84% of the vote.

Suluhu Hassan is expected to complete the term in 2025.

Described as a soft-spoken consensus-builder, Hassan will also be the country’s first president born in Zanzibar, the archipelago that forms part of the union of the Republic of Tanzania.

Her leadership style is seen as a potential contrast from Magufuli, a brash populist who earned the nickname ‘Bulldozer’ for muscling through policies and who drew criticism for his intolerance of dissent, which his government denied.