Tanzania’s current president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, announced the death, in a hospital, on X, formerly known as Twitter. She said Mr. Mwinyi had been treated for lung cancer.
Mr. Mwinyi was 60 when he took over the presidency in 1985 as the handpicked successor of Mr. Nyerere, who had volunteered to step down after governing his country since its beginnings of independent nationhood as Tanganyika in 1961 and its merger with Zanzibar in 1964 to create the state of Tanzania.
Former Tanzanian President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, credited with ushering the East African nation into free market economics, has died at age 98, current President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Thursday on a television broadcast.
Mwinyi succeeded Tanzania’s first post-independence president, Julius Nyerere, who left office in 1985 after 22 years in power.
“On behalf of the government, I would like to convey my condolences to the family, relatives, friends and all Tanzanians for this loss,” President Hassan said.
Mwinyi was credited with introducing free market policies and was in turn succeeded by the late Benjamin Mkapa in 1995.
President Hassan said Mwinyi died in hospital in Dar es Salaam where he was receiving treatment for lung cancer. He had been receiving treatment since November, Hassan said.
Following the death of the second phase President, the Head of State declared seven days of national mourning in honour of Mwinyi popularly known as ‘Mzee Ruksa’.
Alongside declaring seven-day national mourning period, President Samia Suluhu Hassan issued an order for Tanzania’s flags to be flown at half-mast.
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