Former Tanzanian President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, who introduced multi-party democracy to the East African country, died on Thursday at the age of 98, the presidency announced.
“I am sad to announce this death
,” said President Samia Suluhu Hassan, adding that the former president was undergoing treatment for lung cancer.
Mwinyi was hospitalized in London in November 2023 before returning to continue his treatment in Dar es Salaam, added the President of Tanzania.
The country will observe seven days of mourning with national flags at half-mast.
Chosen by independence hero Julius Nyerere to succeed him, Mwinyi inherited a country in the grip of an economic crisis, after years of failed socialist experiments.
He removed restrictions on private enterprise and eased bottlenecks on imports, earning him the nickname
"Mzee Rukhsa"
, a Swahili phrase that could translate as
"Mr.
Permission”
.
He studied Islam
Born on May 8, 1925 in the former British colony known as Tanganyika, Mwinyi moved to Zanzibar to study Islam.
His father hoped he would become a spiritual leader, but the young Mwinyi instead turned to teaching, before entering politics in the 1960s, after the liberation of Tanganyika.
Following the 1964 merger of independent Tanganyika and Zanzibar to form Tanzania, he rose through the ranks to become ambassador to Egypt as well as minister of health, internal affairs and natural resources during the 1970s and early 1960s. 1980s.
In 1984, he became president of Zanzibar, before Nyerere chose him to lead Tanzania.