Wandale suspects plot to kill him at Zomba Mental Hospital: Court says case still on until fit to stand trial:

The self-proclaimed ‘supreme leader’ of the so-called independent country, United States of Mulanje and Thyolo (Must), Vincent Wandale,has said he fears that the government wants to kill him at Zomba Mental Hospital where the court has ordered him to go for treatment after medical doctors said he is suffering from a mental disorder.

Senior Resident Magistrate, Paul Chiotcha, made the ruling at the Magistrates Court in Lilongwe after examining the medical report by a psychiatrist at Kamuzu Central Hospital and hearing arguments from the State and Wandale.

Chiotcha also heard arguments from the state and Wandale who was representing himself.

This means Wandale will not face trial until the court establishes that he is fit for trial.

“It is for this and other reasons that the court has decided to order that Wandale be taken to mental hospital for treatment until the court finds him fir for trial,” said Chiotcha.

He was arrested last month and charged with publication of false statements likely to cause fear and alarm to the public.

The court ordered that the mental hospital should be furnishing it with monthly reports on Wandale’s mental state.

But Wandale opposed the ruling to send him to mental hospital as he read a long statement saying:“I believe this is an execution. I can not go to hospital without my consent,” said Wandale.

He added:“There is a plot to kill me at Zomba Mental Hospial. If the doctors’ report indicated that I am mentally ill, then that is my family issue to decide what medical attention I should get. I would prefer to be sent to a private clinic in South Africa which is the home country of my mother.”

Wandale’s mother, Tumbizodwa Wandale,  reacted with anger with the medical report, saying her son has no mental illness as the report from Kamuzu Central Hospital has indicated.

“My son is okay and he has never had mental problems, if he was a mad person he would not have been taking care of me,” said Wandale’s mother.

“Why only my son, what about the othee people he has been working with on land activism,” she added.

She further denied that a family member testified at the hospital regarding the mental illness history among Wandale’s family members.

Proceedings relating to the medical doctors’ examination of Wandale were held in camera at the Lilongwe Magistrate’s Court, but National Police Headquarters prosecutor Happy Mkandawire said the doctors’ report indicated Wandale was mentally ill.

He said the doctors who examined Wandale recommended that he should undergo mental rehabilitation.

The State prosecutor also said the court heard the matter in camera because there were other confidential details of Wandale’s health the court wanted to safeguard.

Mkandawire said Wandale’s allegations that the government wants to kill him show that he us indeed mentally ill and does not know the lawa as he claims.

Police in Lilongwe arrested Wandale last month after he declared a new government for Thyolo and Mulanje, claiming secession from Malawi. He is facing trial for false statements likely to cause fear and alarm.

Wandale, who remains on the Malawi Government payroll as a civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development stationed at Lilongwe Agriculture Development Division (ADD), first came to the limelight after spearheading a movement for people’s land rights in Mulanje and Thyolo, predominantly tea-growing districts with huge tea plantations.

He was previously arrested and tried for trespassing after threatening to grab land from estate owners to freely distribute to landless people in his capacity as leader of People’s Land Organisation (PLO).