Tanzania’s new president announced plans to appoint a panel of experts to advise her on how best to stem the spread of the coronavirus, reversing the denial of her predecessor to the pandemic.
“We cannot isolate ourselves as an island,” President Samia Suluhu Hassan told senior government officials in a speech broadcast by state broadcaster TBC1. “We cannot accept everything from the outside, but we cannot reject everything either.”
Photographer: Luke Dray / Getty Images
Hassan’s predecessor, John Magufuli, who died last month, avoided wearing masks and advised his countrymen to resort to prayers, steam baths and traditional medicines to protect their health. His government said it would not buy vaccines and stopped publishing Covid-19 infection data in May last year, making it impossible to assess the severity of the disease.
However, a flood of patients showing symptoms of coronavirus seeking treatment in public hospitals and daily funeral masses indicated that Magufuli minimized the severity of the disease. The World Health Organization has joined international calls for the nation to change course.
Hassan said his government’s response to the pandemic will be based on science and indicated that it could resume publishing infection data. While Dorothy Gwajima – a fervent supporter of Magufuli’s Covid-19 approach – was retained as minister of health, Abel Makubi was appointed to the influential position of permanent secretary in the ministry in place of Mabula Mchembe.
Hassan too in charge The newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Liberata Mulamula, to improve Tanzania’s relations with the international community. Ties with the United States and several other nations were strained by Magufuli’s crackdown on civil liberties and their disputed reelection last year.
“We don’t want to go alone,” said Hassan to Mulamula.
The president also instructed her employees to resolve a tax dispute with Barrick Gold Corp., cut red tape to accelerate the development of nickel and helium projects by foreign investors, and lift the prohibitions that the Magufuli government imposed on online television channels and others media.
“I want the tax challenges and other issues with Barrick and other mining joint venture partners to be resolved quickly,” she said. “We are not going to get to the point where we start flexing our muscles against investors.”
Opposition leaders welcomed Hassan’s speech, with the leader of the opposition ACT-Wazalendo party, Zitto Kabwe, saying that she lit up renewed hope for justice, “the creation of an enabling environment for investors and a new focus on revitalizing economic activities”.
“I respect Samia Suluhu Hassan,” said Kabwe in a post on Twitter.
– With the help of Helen Nyambura and Antony Sguazzin
(Updates with comments from the president over)