Bingu’s body arrives Thursday, govt consults on burial place
Malawi government has announced that the body of late president Bingu wa Mutharika is scheduled to be repatriated to Lilongwe from South Africa on Thursday, one week after his death.
The body will lie in state until the burial ceremony expected at the weekend.
A final resting place has not been decided on, but a ministerial committee which has been instituted to prepare funeral arrangements and is being chaired by local government minister Henry Mussa is currently consulting family members on choice for burial site.
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“We are looking at two burial sites. The Heroes Cenotaph (where Kamuzu Banda was buried) or his farm at Ndata in Thyolo,” Mussa said.
Other members of the funeral committee include Ministers Patricia Kaliati, Nicholas Dausi, Jean Kalilani and Vuwa Kaunda.
Ironically the committee comprise DPP members who flanked information minister during a briefing to dispute eligibility of President Joyce Banda
Sources say family members are in favour of Ndata farm in Thyolo where his late wife Ethel was buried.
It is however more likely that the late 78-year-old President will be buried at heroes acre in Lilongwe where the country’s first head of state Hastings Kamuzu Banda was buried.
Mutharika, who had battled poor health for many years, died on Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was flown to South Africa clinically dead.
