Prime Minister of Tanzania, Kassim Majaliwa, said on Friday that President John Magufuli was “strong and worked as hard as ever”, dismissing fears of being ill after a long public absence.
Magufuli has not been seen in public since February 27 and has not even appeared to appease days of rumors that he is seriously ill with Covid-19, which has caused panic on social media.
“I want to assure the Tanzanians that their president is strong and is working as hard as ever. You shouldn’t worry,” Majaliwa told a mosque in southern Njombe, in a video posted online.
“I even talked to him this morning about my trip to Njombe and he told me to greet him on his behalf. I spoke to him over the phone from Dar es Salaam and I was in Dodoma,” said Majaliwa.
The comments are the first direct rebuttal of rumors that Magufuli is ill.
The information minister and the justice minister of Tanzania this week threatened only those who spread rumors with a prison sentence, without directly addressing concerns.
The main opposition party, Chadema, asked again on Friday for an explanation of the president’s location.
“We are forced to ask this because the president appeared in public about two weeks ago and no official statement was issued after the media reported that he was hospitalized. We have a right to know that,” said Chadem Secretary-General John Mnyika, to the press summary.
Chadem’s opposition candidate in last year’s presidential election, Tundu Lissu, wrote on Twitter earlier this week that “the welfare of the president is a matter of grave public concern”.
He says his sources indicate that Magufuli was flown to India for health reasons, while a Kenyan newspaper said he was hospitalized in Nairobi.
None of these reports have been confirmed.
Magufuli insisted for months that Covid-19 had been rejected through prayers, refusing measures such as masks and blockades. But last month he admitted it was still circulating after the vice president of semi-autonomous Zanzibar was revealed to have died of the virus.
Several Tanzanian officials died recently, while the finance minister showed up last month coughing and panting at a news conference outside a hospital to dispel rumors that he had died from Covid-19.
Tanzania stopped releasing data on Covid-19 in April 2020 and in January Magufuli said vaccines for the disease were “dangerous”.
str-fb / pma