“It is not the time to point fingers at each other but to hold hands and move forward to build the new Tanzania that President Magufuli aspired to,” she said, amid opposition claims about the cause of Magufuli’s death. It’s time to bury our differences, show love to one another and look forward with confidence,” she said. “This is the time to stand together and get connected. In a slow and softly spoken address – a stark contrast to the thundering rhetoric favoured by her predecessor – Hassan solemnly declared 14 days of mourning. Tanzania’s new President Samia Suluhu Hassan takes oath of office in Dar es Salaam She would sometimes represent Magufuli on trips abroad but many outside Tanzania had not heard of Hassan until she appeared on national television on Wednesday wearing a black headscarf to announce that Magufuli had died at 61 following a short illness. The pair were re-elected last October in a disputed poll the opposition and independent observers said was marred by irregularities. The CCM comfortably won and Hassan made history when she was sworn in as the country’s first ever female vice president. She rose through the ranks of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) until being picked by Magufuli as his running mate in his first presidential election campaign in 2015. Under the constitution, Hassan will serve the remainder of Magufuli’s second five-year term, which does not expire until 2025.Ī former office clerk and development worker, Hassan began her political career in 2000 in her native Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous archipelago, before being elected to the national assembly on mainland Tanzania and assigned a senior ministry. Today I took the highest oath of office in mourning,” she said in her maiden speech. “Today I have taken an oath different from the rest that I have taken in my career. “It’s not a good day for me to talk to you because I have a wound in my heart,” said Hassan. Hassan, 61, made history on Friday when she was sworn in at a ceremony in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam before a roomful of dignitaries.
Samia Suluhu Hassan is a soft-spoken, veteran politician unexpectedly thrust from the role of vice president to become Tanzania’s first female leader after John Magufuli’s sudden death.