Own Correspondent|Tanzanian head of state President John Pombe Magufuli continued to stir controversy on Sunday with his assertions on the Coronavirus outbreak after he indicated that he had cleared thousands of foreign tourists to visit the country besides the Coronavirus scourge.

Speaking during a church service in the Chato countryside where his rural residence is located, Magufuli revealed that fully booked passenger planes packed with tourists would be landing in Tanzania in a matter of weeks.

He said that he had ordered that the passenger planes be allowed to land.

“There are airlines that have been booked by foreign tourists up to August. The tourists are coming because they know the truth. Tanzania is safe and I have issued an order to the minister of transport to allow the planes to land and not to put the tourists in quarantine. They should just have their temperatures taken and if found to be okay, they should be allowed to tour the country,” the Tanzanian president said.

The order will prove controversial given that other countries across the world have closed their airspaces to prevent passenger planes from landing. This is in a bid to contain the spread of Coronavirus which has infected over 3 million people according to statistics held by the World Health Organization (WHO).

President Dr John Pombe Magufuli has come under a lot of criticism over his government’s handling of the Coronavirus outbreak.

Meanwhile, on Saturday the 16th of May Magufuli axed the Deputy Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Children, and the Elderly, Faustine Ndugulile who is the Member of Parliament for Kigamboni Constituency.

President Magufuli immediately replaced Ndugulile with Dr, Godwin Mollel, who is currently the Member of Parliament for Siha Constituency to be the deputy of Ummy Mwalimu in the Ministry of Health, Community Development Gender, Children and Elderly Ministry.

With barely 24 hours after his axing, Dr. Ndugulile has come out to respond to the decision by president Magufuli.On his twitter timeline Ndugulile accepted with great humility the decision by the president to replace him and thanked him for the opportunity to work in the government. Ndugulile further thanked thanked Ummy Mwalimu and her counterparts for the cooperation they give him.

Source: Twitter