President John Magafuli of Tanzania announced dead after going missing for days

President John Magafuli of Tanzania has died. He was only 61 years old.

President Magufuli reportedly went missing days ago as mainstream media reports he died of COVID-19.

Early last year his security team advised him to check the quality of the PCR tests that are being used to diagnose coronavirus.

Magufuli suspended the head of his national health laboratory in charge of testing coronavirus, ordered an investigation, and declared the imported test kits faulty after they returned positive results on a goat and a pawpaw fruit. These were submitted along with several other non-human samples for testing, with technicians left deliberately unaware of their origins.

Magufuli revealed his findings to the world in what has become both a famous and heavily censored speech. He then opened up Tanzania for travel without PCR tests or isolation measures. He also vehemently opposed face mask mandates and told his people in Tanzania not to wear them.

The Off-Guardian site’s Kit Knightly documented a worldwide orchestrated campaign to discredit President Magufuli, with the Council on Foreign Relations publishing an article arguing President Magufuli has lost all authority, concluding, quote: “a bold figure within the ruling party could capitalize on the current episode to begin to reverse course.”

Knightly wrote: “It’s not hard to read the subtext there, if you can even call it ‘subtext’ at all.”

The Off-Guardian article, written before the announcement of President Magufuli’s death, concluded: “If we are about to see the sudden death and/or replacement of the President of Tanzania, he will not be the first African head of state to suffer such a fate in the age of COVID.

“Last summer Pierre Nkurunziza, the President of Burundi, instructed the World Health Organization delegation to leave his country, before dying suddenly of a ‘heart attack’ or ‘suspected COVID-19’. His successor immediately reversed every single one of his COVID policies, including inviting the World Health Organization back to the country."