by Ralph T. Niemeyer
He embarrassed the PCR test, spared his country the lockdown and turned Zanzibar into a tourism dream without masks.
Shock for Tanzania: Yesterday, the death of 61-year-old President John Magufuli was announced. The deeply believing Catholic reportedly died of heart failure. The Financial Times, on the other hand, spoke of a “mysterious disease”. As a precautionary measure, the German ARD-Tagesschau spread a conspiracy theory: “There will be doubts about the official cause of death. There have been rumors for days that the 61-year-old president has been infected with the coronavirus.” The BBC immediately turned it into a catchy headline: “Tanzania’s president this aged 61 after Covid rumours.”
The Kenyan television station KDRTV reports quite differently: “The Tansan president was allegedly poisoned by the Chinese with the support of Western spies.” The broadcaster refers to “a high ranking government official”, i.e. a member of the government, but does not name it.
The report also points out that the circumstances of his death are already very mysterious: while the Tanzanian government speaks of a hospital in the economic metropolis of Dar-es Salaam as a place of divorce, there are also rumours on the Internet that he died in a clinic in Nairobi/Kenya or even in India, for example, spread by Mr. Tindu Lissu, Magufuli’s opponent in the last presidential elections and who has been visiting Berlin a few times recently.
KDRTV sees the motive for the possible assassination of Magufuli in its protectionist economic policy: he had decreed that the country’s raw materials may first be processed in Tanzania itself and then exported – which significantly reduces the profit margin of foreign mineral companies. Magufuli was particularly annoyed when he had certain shiploads containing unprocessed raw materials confiscated in the port of Dar es-Salaam for China. He imposed protective tariffs on imports, and prevented cheap foreign dumping workers from pouring in – to protect his own workers.
“We are not the guinea pigs of the White Man!”
But Magufuli’s greatest fall in the eyes of the global elites was his consistent and spectacular rejection of Corona dictatorship measures. The chemist, who holds a doctorate in economics, made a name for himself around the world when, at the beginning of the so-called pandemic, he tested a fruit, a goat and a sheep with the PCR tests developed for humans: “We took samples from a papaya and called it Elizabeth Ane, 26 years old, female. The result of the papaya was positive. She has Corona!”. The same was true of the goat. Consequently, the government stopped testing across the country in June 2020.
Of the 509 people infected and 21 dead, which had been registered by then, no one has officially been added.
Magufuli conveyed the papaya sensation to the WHO, writing: “Something is going on here. I have already said that we should not accept that any help should be good for this nation.” In short, he is the man who outwitted the WHO with a simple trick – the very global health giant that claims to be the rock in the surf of the virus crisis.
The British “Guardian” ran an open campaign against Mr. Magufuli openly suggesting to remove him from power.
In addition, the President is vigorously opposed to the vaccination campaign, which is to be pushed through the world. In a televised speech in late January, he pointed out that it was Tanzanians vaccinated abroad “who brought the disease [Corona] here.” His compatriots were supposed to act as “sea pigs” in the “dangerous vaccinations,” and all of this only serves the “white man’s plan” to appropriate wealth to the state. As an example of the danger of pharmaceutical companies, the President cited vaccinations against cervical cancer in girls and young women. For some of them, this would have led to infertility. Were these clear words his death sentence?
