Mkukukutamoyo returns to Malawi as Mutharika ends South Africa trip

President Peter Mutharika — known in party folklore as Mkukukutamoyo — returns to Malawi on Monday after a two‑week private visit to South Africa, a trip that has generated more speculation than official detail.

Government chief secretary Dr Justin Saidi says the president is flying back on a chartered aircraft, accompanied by First Lady Gertrude Mutharika.

Beyond that, the administration has offered little, allowing rumours to fill the vacuum.

Mutharika returns to a country still wrestling with cost‑of‑living pressures, a persistent foreign‑exchange squeeze, and public anxiety over the pace of economic stabilisation — a backdrop that makes every presidential movement part of the wider political theatre.

His re‑emergence comes only months after his political comeback, securing 56.8% of the vote and clearing the 50‑plus‑one threshold required for an outright win.

It was a striking reversal for a leader whose 2019 victory was nullified by the courts, forcing the 2020 Fresh Presidential Election that removed him from office.

Five years later, he reclaimed the presidency with a margin that surprised even some within his own party.