NEWLY elected Tanzanian president John Magufuli is on a roll - he has cancelled independence day celebrations, banned all but essential foreign travel, and restricted first and business class travel for all officials except the president, vice president and prime minister.
Magufuli also announced a raft of measures meant to curb government excesses and boost revenue collection, directing the Tanzanian Revenue Authority to cut down on tax exemptions.
Public servants have been put on notice, the head of a major public hospital was fired and the hospital’s governing council dissolved when Magufuli paid an impromptu visit and found patients sleeping on the floor and diagnostic machines broken.
The president is eager to live up to his campaign slogan “Hapa Kazi Tu” (work and nothing else), and it was only a matter of time before Africans on Twitter latched onto the tough measures and started applying them to their daily lives - to hilarious effect.
A generation jaded
Jokes aside, Magufuli’s austere approach resonates with a generation that is jaded with endless corruption scandals and government excesses, where only the most egregious scams would move the needle.
And with currencies around the continent tanking, and revenues drying up as the global economy slows, Africans are eager to see a leader who not just talks tough, but tightens the belt where it hurts the most - in the heart of government.
For example, early this month, Swaziland’s King Mswati is said to have taken 15 wives, 30 children and over 100 servants with him to a recent Africa leaders conference in India, booking out 200 hotel rooms in advance.
But other fresh presidents, too, are taking the tough road, and getting lauded for it. In Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari’s reputation as a no-nonsense disciplinarian is having a similarly chilling effect in a country that had got used to living as it pleases; just the ‘fear of Buhari’ has been enough to start whipping Nigeria into shape.
And in Senegal, the country’s Senate was abolished to save money.
These days, though, Magufuli, who was nicknamed “The Bulldozer” when he was Works minister because he oversaw the building of many roads, is all the rage:
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