1. John Pombe Joseph Magufuli was a Tanzanian politician who served as the fifth president of Tanzania, serving from 2015 until his death in 2021.
42 Facts About John Magufuli
1. 2.
John Magufuli served as Minister of Works, Transport and Communications from 2000 to 2005 and 2010 to 2015 and was chairman of the Southern African Development Community from 2019 to 2020.
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John Magufuli ran on a platform of reducing government corruption and spending while investing in Tanzania's industries, but his rule had autocratic tendencies, as seen in restrictions on freedom of speech, restrictions on LGBTQ rights, and a crackdown on members of the political opposition and civil society groups.
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Contrary to leaders elsewhere in the world, John Magufuli ordered COVID-19 testing to stop and resisted calls to implement public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania.
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John Magufuli expressed distrust of American- and European-developed vaccines, preferring to rely on faith to protect his nation.
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John Magufuli was born in 1959 in northwestern Tanzania, on the shores of Lake Victoria, into a poor family.
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John Magufuli lived in a small thatched house, looking after the cattle and selling milk and fish to support his family.
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John Magufuli started his education at the Chato Primary School from 1967 to 1974 and went on to the Katoke Seminary in Biharamulo for his secondary education from 1975 to 1977 before relocating to Lake Secondary School in 1977 and graduating in 1978.
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John Magufuli joined Mkwawa High School for his Advanced level studies in 1979 and graduated in 1981.
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John Magufuli earned his Bachelor of Science in education degree, majoring in Chemistry and Mathematics as teaching subjects from the University of Dar es Salaam in 1988.
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John Magufuli earned his master's degree, and doctorate degrees in chemistry from the University of Dar es Salaam in 1994 and 2009, respectively.
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John Magufuli ventured into elective politics after a short period as a teacher at The Sengerema Secondary School between 1982 and 1983.
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John Magufuli remained there from 1989 to 1995, when he was elected as Member of Parliament representing Chato district.
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John Magufuli was appointed Deputy Minister for Works in his first term as MP.
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John Magufuli retained his seat in the 2000 election and was promoted to a full ministerial position under the same docket.
16.
On 12 July 2015, John Magufuli was nominated as CCM's presidential candidate for the 2015 election, after winning a majority vote in the final round of the primary over two opponents: Justice Minister and former United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, and the African Union Ambassador to the United States, Amina Salum Ali.
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In July 2020, John Magufuli was nominated as the CCM's presidential candidate in elections scheduled for October 2020.
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John Magufuli's nomination was not opposed after the expulsion from the party earlier in the year of Bernard Membe, a former foreign minister who had planned to challenge the nomination.
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John Magufuli received the highest votes and was therefore re-elected to extend his presidency until 2025 for a second term.
20.
John Magufuli reduced his own salary from US$15,000 to US$4,000 per month.
21.
John Magufuli suspended the country's Independence Day festivities for 2015, in favour of a national cleanup campaign to help reduce the spread of cholera.
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John Magufuli personally participated in the cleanup efforts, having stated that it was "so shameful that we are spending huge amounts of money to celebrate 54 years of independence when our people are dying of cholera".
23.
On 10 December 2015, more than a month after taking office, John Magufuli announced his cabinet.
24.
On 12 April 2016, John Magufuli conducted his first foreign visit to Rwanda, where he met his counterpart Paul Kagame and inaugurated the new bridge and one-stop border post at Rusumo.
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John Magufuli attended the memorial for the 22nd anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.
26.
In July 2016, Tanzania banned shisha smoking, with John Magufuli citing its health effects among youth as the reason.
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In January 2018, John Magufuli issued a directive ordering the suspension of registration for foreign merchant ships, following recent incidents surrounding the seizure of overseas shipments of illegal goods being transported under the flag.
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John Magufuli's government worked on various infrastructure projects targeting economic development.
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John Magufuli received the nickname "The Bulldozer" in reference to his roadworks projects, but the term was used about his moves to reduce spending and corruption within the government.
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John Magufuli's policies are unusual on a continent where, in general, "corruption and embezzlement of public funds are a way of life" in ruling circles, according to the daily The Citizen.
31.
John Magufuli's government was publicly criticized by the Tanzania Episcopal Conference for taking measures that suppress constitutional freedoms and, in the view of bishops, represent a threat to national unity.
32.
In late 2018, John Magufuli initiated a nationwide crackdown, threatening to arrest and deport anyone campaigning for gay rights and making it difficult to find a lawyer who will defend cases of violence against LGBTQ people.
33.
In July 2019, John Magufuli urged women to "set your ovaries free".
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John Magufuli promoted COVID-19 misinformation and misinformation related to vaccination during the pandemic in Tanzania.
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John Magufuli instructed security forces to blindly test coronavirus PCR test kits for quality on goats, papaya, sheep, and motor oil.
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The last official data on the coronavirus in Tanzania, under President John Magufuli, was published in late April 2020.
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John Magufuli had dismissed the head of the national laboratory, and the distribution of non-governmental information on the spread of the virus had become a crime.
38.
John Magufuli disputed the effectiveness of face masks and testing.
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However, John Magufuli partially changed his position in the next month.
40.
John Magufuli was the only Tanzanian president to die in office.
41.
The government attributed his death to a heart condition accompanied by a decade-long chronic atrial fibrillation, although opposition figures and some media sources alleged that John Magufuli had contracted COVID-19.
42.
John Magufuli was married to Janeth Magufuli, a primary school teacher, with whom he had seven children.