Tanzania President Says A Committe of Experts will be Formed to Research on Covid-19

Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan has announced plans to set up a task force of experts to examine the country’s Covid-19 measures.

President Suluhu also ordered the reopening of media houses that were previously banned or sanctioned by the former administration.

“We cannot segregate ourselves like an island, but also we cannot blindly accept what is being brought forward to us (on COVID-19) without carrying out our own investigations and inputs,” she told officials at State House in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam. “Let us have a stance.”

Her remarks stood in firm contrast to the position of late president John Magufuli, who was Africa’s most prominent COVID-19 sceptic. Magufuli had urged Tanzanians to shun mask-wearing and denounced vaccines as a Western conspiracy, frustrating the World Health Organization.

Magufuli had also suspended or shut down newspapers and websites, jailed journalists and warned them that there were limits to press freedoms.

President Suluhu today said “We should not ban the media by force. Reopen them, and we should ensure they follow the rules. We should not give them room to say we are shrinking press freedom.”