Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli surprised onlookers Wednesday December 9, 2015 when he walked out of State House to collect rubbish off the streets, after cancelling Independence Day celebrations for a national clean-up.

Magufuli, who took power in November after winning the October 25 elections, has introduced a swathe of austerity cuts and crackdowns on public corruption.

Dozens of fishermen joined in the clean-up with their president, who shovelled leaves and plastic rubbish close to a fish market near the presidential palace as a crowd of hundreds looked on.

“Let us work together to keep our country, cities, homes and workplaces clean, safe and healthy,” the smiling Magufuli said, as he picked up litter with his hands.

Street cleaning took place across the economic capital Dar es Salaam, with plumes of smoke rising into the sky as residents burned piles of litter.

But this is just what newly elected President John Magufuli did this morning after cancelling today’s usually lavish Independence Day celebrations and ordering Tanzanians to clean-up their neighbourhoods.

The scene was replicated across the country, with schools and shops remaining shut as people swept streets, pruned trees, and tidied up their areas from the crack of dawn.

Former president Jakaya Kikwete also took part in cleaning in his home town of Chalinze sweeping and gathering rubbish.

This is the first time in 54 years that Tanzania has not held celebrations to mark independence from the UK.

In many ways, the clean -up exercise was symbolic of President Magufuli’s pledge to remove what many Tanzanians see as the rot in public institutions, and their failure to perform effectively.
Last month, Mr Magufuli said it would be “shameful” to spend huge sums of money on the celebrations when “our people are dying of cholera”.

Cholera has killed about 60 people in Tanzania in the last three months – many of them in poor areas which lack proper toilets.

Mr Magafuli, nicknamed “The Bulldozer”, was elected in October.

Credit : Daily Nation