Magufuli To Re-Open Tanzania Economy, Says Lockdowns Doesn’t Work

Tanzania President Magufuli continues to be a man of his own and a rebel to the fear factor that Covid-19 came with. While speaking during a church service on Sunday, the President who recently closed down the national laboratory and called of Covid19 testing citing faulty kits, said things are looking up well.

Despite alarm from western envoys like the US that recently warned citizens against moving around flagging Dar as a hotspot for the virus, Magufuli in a rare appearance has said the cases are actually declining.

The President played down the effectiveness of curfews and lockdowns saying the strategies are less effective and why he didn’t lockdown the countries like it’s neighbors.

Magufuli said, “Tanzania hakuna cha lockdown, wala Baba yake lockdown, wala Ndugu yake lockdown, tunaendelea kuchapa kazi wakimaliza kujilock huko watakuja tutawasaidia chakula, na tusiwabague, kila Mtu ana njia zake za kutatua tatizo.”

Magufuli attributed the success to God and announced that given the declining trend, he was going to open the schools, allow tourists to come in without restrictions of quarantine, resume football league and generally open up the economy.

“Huwezi kuwa una mji wako halafu unapangiwa la kufanya, Mzee wetu wetu Kikwete alisema la kuambiwa changanya na lako, haiwezekani ukiambiwa jifungie,unajifungia chumbani wakati hauna chakula, tutaenda tunavyotaka, hili ni Taifa huru, Taifa linalojiamini, tumepambana na mengi.” He said.

At the same time, Magufuli called out the neighbors like Kenya for closing their borders saying it goes against the good relations they share. In retaliation, Magufuli insists that trucks from Tanzania will not cross the border and all transactions will have to happen at the entry points.

Magifuli also downplayed the virus saying his child had also contracted coronavirus and only had to self isolate, took lemon water, steam inhalation and is now fully recovered.

He warned the authorities against treating all deaths as if they’re corona related, he questioned the intentions behind tallying the deaths and postmortems to determine if it was coronavirus. In the same line, the President ordered that people be allowed to mourn their relatives as they’ve been instead of restricting mourners and hurrying the burials.