John Magufuli,
Tanzania’s firebrand president who dismissed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and urged voters to gather in churches and mosques to protect themselves against it, has died, leaving behind a mixed legacy and questions over the leadership of his gold-producing nation. He was 61 years old.
Tanzania’s Vice President
Samia Sulhu Hassan
reported Mr. Magufuli’s death on state television shortly before midnight on Wednesday, saying he had died of heart complications while being treated in Dar es Salaam’s Mzena hospital.
“Tanzania has lost a courageous leader,” the vice president said through tears, standing next to the national flag.
Speculation had been rife across East Africa for more than a week that Mr. Magufuli, a vocal Covid-19 skeptic, was critically ill with the coronavirus.
Nicknamed “the Bulldozer” for the forceful leadership style he used…