A sombre mood fell over Malawi as truckloads of people welcomed the remains of late president Bingu wa Mutharika, flown back from South Africa Saturday following a fatal heart attack. Thousands of Malawians waited with new President Joyce Banda as a South African military aircraft touched down at Kamuzu International Airport shortly after 1415 local time (1215 GMT), bearing the body of a man known at the same time as "father of the nation" and oppressive "Mr know-it-all".
A 21-gun salute sounded as South African military personnel handed Mutharika's brown casket draped with the Malawi flag - a red sun rising over black, red and green horizontal bars - to Malawi Defence Force officers on the airport tarmac. The armed forces mounted a guard of honour for Mutharika as a military brass band played solemn music.
Bishop Joseph Zuza, head of the Malawi Catholic Church, offered prayers invoking God to "forgive the sins" of Mutharika, and Malawians to "pray for his soul to rest in eternal peace." Zuza, an outspoken cleric who once criticised Mutharika for his "bad economic policies", said the mourners had gathered to welcome the body with "sorrow and love because death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of a new life."
The crowds were not left unmoved. "The reality that we have a funeral has sunk in among residents of the capital city. We want to give our dear leader a hero's welcome from South Africa," said Richard Phiri, a supporter of Mutharika's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), as he climbed down from a truck in the airport car park.
Even supporters of Mutharika's rival Banda showed up, wearing the colours of their People's Party. "For once, the nation should be united over this funeral. Despite his failings, Mutharika was our head of state," Sheila Gamute told AFP. The 78-year-old leader had been flown to South Africa after he suffered a fatal heart attack on April 5. Government trucks ferried people to the airport amid fuel shortages caused by a lack of foreign currency blamed on Mutharika's policies.
Neighbouring Zambia has given Malawi five million litres of fuel, which can last for five days, to "help with the funeral process." But public sympathy over the president's death has not been unanimous. "Let the man be buried first. We come to mourn and bury him, not to praise him," wrote Edward Chitsulo, a columnist in the independent Nation newspaper on Saturday.
"Of course that he plunged the country into economic and social abyss is not under dispute," he added. Mutharika had expelled Banda, who was his vice president, from his ruling party in a bitter succession battle, as he chose to groom his brother Peter as heir apparent
His death last Thursday created two days of political uncertainty as the former leader's inner circle tried to block Banda assuming the post. But as ordered by the constitution, she was sworn in a week ago as Africa's second female head of state. She urged Malawians to give her predecessor a "dignified funeral". Mutharika's body will lie in state at the $100-million (76-million-euro) presidential palace for the "family and friends to pay their last respects", according to funeral committee head Henry Mussa.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.