Presidency
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See also: Suluhu Cabinet and List of international presidential trips made by Samia Suluhu |
On 17 March 2021, Mama Samia announced that Magufuli had died after a long illness; Magufuli had not been seen in public since late February. She was sworn in as his successor on 19 March 2021, and will serve the balance of Magufuli's second five-year term.[14] The delay in the start of her term came because the Constitution of Tanzania explicitly requires the vice-president to take the presidential oath before ascending to the presidency;[15] opposition leaders had expressed concern about a possible "vacuum" when 18 March passed without Suluhu being sworn in.[16] Upon her swearing-in, Suluhu became Tanzania's first female president.[17] She is also the second Zanzibari to hold the post,[18] and the third Muslim after Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Jakaya Kikwete.[19] She also became one of two serving female heads of state in Africa, alongside Ethiopia's Sahle-Work Zewde.[20] Under the Constitution, since she took office with more than three years remaining in Magufuli's term, if she completes this term she will only be eligible for one full term in her own right should she decide to stand at the next election.[15][clarification needed]
Suluhu's administration initiated efforts to curb the COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania, in stark contrast to the skepticism of the virus under Magufuli's tenure. Mandatory 14-day quarantines for travellers entering Tanzania from countries housing newly risen variants of SARS-CoV-2 were imposed. Visitors were recommended to wear face masks, sanitize themselves, and practice social distancing.[21] Suluhu permitted embassies and other international organizations to import vaccines into the country to vaccinate foreign nationals for their Tanzanian day-to-day work, aided by the Ministry of Health.[22]
In 2022, She was named among the top 100 most influential people in the world by American magazine Time. [23]
Political reforms and unity
President Samia inherited a politically highly divided situation in which her predecessor, Magufuli, had centralized governance towards single party politics.[24] Upon phase 6, Suluhu's government, Mama Samia voiced desire to reverse the political direction of Tanzania.[25] None-the-less, shortly after Suluhu became President the leader of the opposition party CHADEMA, Freeman Mbowe, was arrested under charges of treason.[26] All charges would later be dropped.[27] Upon day of his release Mbowe was summoned and met with Mama Samia at the State House in Dar es Salaam. The meeting was said to be greatly successful,[28] and has lead to further meetings between the two as well as other opposition leaders to improve communication and repair the political division and create unity within the countries' political parties. On February 16th, 2022, Mama Samia met with opposition leader Tundu Lissu in Belgium,[29] where he had been living in exile after shot 16 times in an attempted assassination in 2017.[30][31] Both spoke greatly of the conversation and for Lissu to return home to Tanzania to again participate in politics.[32]
President Samia's meetings and reconciliations between the parties has not been universally welcomed, and has received criticism particularly within her own party. Following the release of Freeman Mbowe, and his immediate conversation with Mama Samia, his first appearance days later was at the International Women's Day event in Iringa. This caused critics to accuse Mama Samia of releasing Mbowe on condition of support for Western feminist policies.[33]
In addition to meeting and repairing the divide between the politicians of the parties, Mama Samia has lifted restrictions of press put in place by her predecessor and reissued licenses to opposition publications. Most notably the reissue of licenses for the publications of Mwanahalisi, Mawio, Mseto, and Tanzania Daima which is owned by opposition leader Freeman Mbowe.[34]
She has attracted criticisms from frontline activists and feminists when she made comments about female footballers in a certain match in the country she attended; where she exclaimed they were too bare chested and looked like men and worried they might not find husbands. Fatma Karume a renowned activist and former lawyer called on her on Twitter that there is more to women than getting married and even those who want to get married don’t always desire a male version drawing criticism on herself that she was supporting homosexuality which she had and still supports full legal rights to that group. Upon taking office in a few months too she had claimed that she still kneels before her husband even if she is the president of Tanzania; attracting criticisms from many women and Feminists among other people who claimed that she was sexist and still believed men were superior that’s why she felt the need to say women were still beneath them even when holding high office in the Land.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58306708.amp
Upon a few months of being in power, TCRA has banned online pornography among other websites something that even Magufuli didn’t do but people still use VPN to surpass the censoring like they did with Twitter under Magufuli when he banned it. When she was Vice President she had made anti homosexuality comments which were and still in line with the party, former president and majority of Tanzanians by warning Tanzania will never accept same sex marriage. Upon taking power even though she hasn’t actively carry out any anti gay crusade unlike her predecessor; she has however reiterated her position that Tanzania has its own cultural norms and behavior and warned the media why it didn’t cut off same sex scenes in some of their outlets.
Infrastructure
Since taking over the presidential position in 2021, She has ensured that the flagship projects that were initiated by the late President Magufuli are completed on time.[35] Besides that, she has also signed new development projects.[36] In 2022, she attended the Expo 2020 to promote its products and opportunities which lead her to sign business partnership deal with Dubai.[37][38]
