However, some Tanzanians, especially businessfolk, are having doubts about Mr Magufuli’s flair for the dramatic. When he thinks a public official has misbehaved he fires him on the spot, rather than following due process. More important is that he shows little interest in wider reforms aimed at spurring economic growth. If anything he seems to be making it tougher to invest in a country that already scores dismally on the World Bank’s ease of doing business index, where it is ranked 139th out of 189. “What Africa needs is strong institutions, not strong men or women,” says Zitto Kabwe, an opposition leader.

Instead of addressing these deeper structural issues Mr Magufuli has continued to live up to his nickname of “Bulldozer”: one foreign firm was given seven days to settle a $5m bill, says its boss. The country’s revenue authority then took the money directly from its bank account. By contrast, the government is painfully slow to pay its own bills: it still owes the same company $30m.

Acacia Mining, a gold producer, is owed $98m in VAT rebates—effectively an interest-free loan to the government. “The country has become totally uninvestable,” says a bigwig at a private-equity firm with holdings across Africa. “You pay your taxes for five years and have the returns to prove it and then some guy arrives with his own calculation and says you haven’t paid your tax.”

Waaa...He should come to Kenya.

this guy has very thin skin. typical of megalomaniacs.