'White House' Ndata is 5-bed palace – Peter Mutharika
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mutharika says late president Bingu wa Mutharika’s controversial multi-million dollar multi-roomed White House style Ndata Farm House which shows obscene opulence has five bedrooms contrary to what he said were incorrect media reports of 85 rooms.
Speaking at the sombre funeral ceremony in the southern tea-growing district of Thyolo on Monday, Peter said his brother was a designer.
He said late Mutharika “designed the Ndata Farm House”, saying it has “only 5 bedrooms.”
Peter Mutharika asked journalists to correct in their media outlets that the house has 85 bedrooms.
“Ndata has only five bedrooms. I beg you to correct that error,” he said.
He then asked the press corps: “You promise to correct that. They are only five rooms. Please correct that.”
Civil society organisations (CSOs) in Malawi want government to probe the value of late Mutharika’s wealth amassed during his time in power and how he acquired it.
The call also goes on to probe financial sources that enabled Mutharika to buy and develop Ndata Farm in Thyolo.
Journalist of a Catholic’s Montfort media, Ernest Mahwayo, was arrested for taking pictures of Ndata Farm.
Portuguese construction company Mota-Engil Construction was hired to construct the Ndata House and also constructed late Ethel Mutharika’s ‘Taj Mahal’ style of Mausoleum at Ndata Farm.
Mota-Engil is the same company that government awarded a contract to construct a 10 kilometre road at unbudgeted cost of MK850 million without following tender procedures. It is almost monopolising all major contracts by Malawi government.
Mutharika built Ndata soon after taking the reins of power in 2004. When his first wife died in 2006 he constructed what he named Mpumulo wa Bata (Peaceful Rest) on the grounds of the farm.
Malawians dubbed the ostentatious multi-million dollar mausoleum the Taj Mahal .
He created a room for himself beside his wife of 37 years.
