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DAR ES SALAAM. – Ali Hassan Mwinyi, who during two terms as Tanzania’s president oversaw the introduction of a multiparty democracy and the liberalisation of the economy, died yesterday. He was 98.

Mwinyi died from lung cancer in Tanzania’s commercial hub, Dar es Salaam, where he had been hospitalised for several weeks, President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced on state television TBC1.

She said there will be seven days of national mourning and Mwinyi will be laid to rest on March 2 in Zanzibar.

National flags will fly at half-mast throughout Tanzania for the duration of the seven-day mourning period

Mwinyi succeeded Tanzania’s first post-independence president, Julius Nyerere, who left office in 1985 after 22 years in power.

“On behalf of the government, I would like to convey my condolences to the family, relatives, friends and all Tanzanians for this loss,” President Hassan said.

Mwinyi was credited with introducing free market policies and was in turn succeeded by the late Benjamin Mkapa in 1995.

President Hassan revealed that Mwinyi had been receiving treatment in London, UK, since November last year before he was taken back home and admitted to Mzena Hospital, where he met his death. – Agencies