Mutharika back in Malawi, no presidential vacuum

President Peter Mutharika is back in Malawi. The President returned through Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe from South Africa, where he spent three weeks on a private visit. He arrived around 4.15pm on a chartered plane, accompanied by First Lady Gertrude Mutharika.

Mutharika has returned to Malawi aboard a Bombardier Global 5000 twin jet, registration 9H-ADKA. The aircraft left Lanseria Airport in South Africa at 14:22 and completed the 1-hour, 36-minute flight.

The jet is operated under the Elitavia Malta 31A charter, registered as EAU31A.

The trip came under a cloud of online chatter.

Social media “rumour-mongers”, as the government would put it, have been spreading claims that Mutharika was critically ill, with some even speculating about his death.

The President, by all accounts, is fit to carry out the functions of his office.

He returns to a country still wrestling with a foreign currency shortage and a fuel crisis, a reminder that the problems waiting for him have not gone anywhere.

Mutharika reclaimed the presidency with 3,035,249 votes, against 1,765,170 for incumbent Lazarus Chakwera. That gave him 56.8 per cent of the vote, enough to clear the 50-per-cent-plus-one threshold for an outright win.

His return to power is a remarkable one. He was booted out after a five-judge panel of the High Court, sitting as a Constitutional Court, nullified his 2019 victory over irregularities. The court-ordered fresh election took place on June 23, 2020. Five years later, he was back.

In his inauguration speech, Mutharika promised a tougher approach to corruption. “The honeymoon of looting is over,” he declared, adding that the country now had a different president.

“If I find you stealing public resources, you are gone, whether you are a businessman, politician or civil servant,” he said.

For a President who has returned home to a struggling economy, those words will be tested quickly.