Tanzania’s Minister for Justice ‘suddenly falls i*l’ and dies at home

Tanzania’s Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Ambassador Dr Augustine Phillip Mahiga is dead.

Mahiga died aged 74 in the wee hours of Friday morning (May 1) in Dodoma, Tanzania’s national capital.

“Mahiga was suddenly taken ill while at his home, and was pronounced dead on arrival at a Dodoma hospital,” the Director of Presidential Communications at State House, Gerson Msigwa, said in a statement Friday.

Tanzania’s President John Pombe Magufuli eulogised the Late Mahiga as a “hard-working, diligent and patriotic diplomat, who championed for Tanzania’s welfare on the international front”.

“Besides his vast experience in public service, the Late Mahiga was humble and disciplined throughout his career,” said President Magufuli.

Prior to being appointed as Minister for Justice, Mahiga held a ministerial position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2015 and 2019.

He previously served as the Permanent Representative of Tanzania to the United Nations from 2003 to 2010 and as the UN Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia from 2010 to 2013.

In December 2015, he was nominated as a Member of Parliament by President John Magufuli and, thereafter, appointed to the Cabinet as Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Mahiga was born in 1945. In 1971, he earned a Bachelor of Arts (Education) degree at the University of East Africa in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. That same year, Mahiga completed a Master of Arts degree programme at the University of Toronto (U of T). He also received a PhD in International Relations in 1975 from the same institution.

Mahiga is survived by his wife and children.