Tanzanians are in a state of mourning after the death on Thursday of former president Benjamin Nkapa at the age of 81, APA can report on Friday.
Nkapa, who led Tanzania for 10 years after the country’s first multiparty elections in 1995, died at a hospital in Dar es Salaam.
His death comes eight months after he published his autobiography “My Life, My Purpose”.
Nkapa has been widely credited for the reforms which eventually moved his country to economic liberalism after decades under socialist policies dating back to the days of independence leader Julius Nyerere.
As Tanzania’s third president (1995-2005) he succeeded Ali Hassan Mwinyi who continued with Nyerere’s economic socialism doctrines.
Nkapa, a former diplomat received praise from the World Bank for his government’s effective tax collection regime and austerity measures which spurred international lenders to cancel much of his country’s foreign debt.
However, his rule was dogged by accusations of heavy-handedness especially after the 2001 shooting dead of protesters in Pemba island.
He admitted in his autobiography that the incident might be the only blot during his stint as president.
Accusations of corruption and nepotism had dogged his retirement life in relation to coal mine in the southern highlands of Tanzania which his detractors claimed he had “improperly given to himself” and his then Finance Minister Daniel Yona without the right procedures.
WN/as/APA