Tag: Bingu wa Mutharika

Malawi sells jet for food

malawijetPresident Joyce Banda decided last year to sell the jet, bought by her predecessor Bingu wa Mutharika for $22m, due to the cost of running it.

Former colonial power Britain, Malawi’s main bilateral donor, reduced its aid to Malawi by $4.7m after the 14-passenger aircraft was purchased.

Mutharika, who died last year from heart attack, often defended the buying of the jet, saying it was cheap to run and a status symbol for the poor southern African nation.

In July, the United Kingdom said it would provide Malawi with $20m to alleviate  the “looming food crisis” in southern Africa.

Lynne Featherstone, the UK’s international development minister, said the funds would “save countless lives”.

Malawi, which was a net exporter of maize just a few years ago, has now seen stocks depleted to a quarter of its annual average after the worst harvest in seven years

Price hikes and unpredictable weather have left food stocks dangerously low in the region, the government said.

Since taking office, Banda has introduced a host of cost-cutting measures and uses commercial airlines to travel outside the country.

The presidential aircraft was auctioned off to a Virgin Islands company, Bohnox Enterprise Ltd and the deal was announced in May.

The luxury jet cost Malawi about $300,000 a year in maintenance and insurance, a government official revealed. – Al Jazeera

Critic of Malawian president jailed

An outspoken opponent of Malawi’s president who once served as his attorney general says the administration sent thugs to petrol bomb his law office – and the government critic ended up in jail.

Ralph Kasambara was arrested Monday, accused of kidnapping and torturing three men he told reporters confessed to his bodyguards that they had been sent after him by the government.

Information Minister Patricia Kaliati denies Kasambara’s accusations, and Kasambara denies the kidnapping and torture charges.

Concern that President Bingu wa Mutharika is intolerant of criticism and violating human rights has led to protests and strained relations between Malawi, among the world’s poorest countries, and its foreign donors. At least 19 people were killed by police when anti-government demonstrations last year degenerated into looting.

In the Kasambara case, court clerks who have been striking for higher pay for weeks suspended their strike to allow a bail hearing because lawyers have supported the clerks. On Tuesday, a magistrate ordered Kasambara released. Prison authorities balked at first, saying the order came too late in the day Tuesday. Kasambara was released Wednesday and greeted by hundreds of his supporters, colleagues and journalists outside a Blantyre jail.

Hours later, police arrested him again at his home, saying his bail procedure was flawed. Supporters again gathered at the jail, and police wielded batons to disperse them.

Kasambara’s arrest came days after weekly newspapers quoted him criticizing Mutharika.

“Malawians have options. They should ask the president to resign or they should impeach him. He wants to be a dictator,” Kasambara was quoted as telling The Weekend Nation.

Mutharika, a former World Bank official, was once heralded by economic analysts and was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2009 by voters who embraced his anti-corruption, anti-poverty pledges. But the country’s economy has struggled in the last year, and questions about Mutharika’s commitment to democracy and human rights became an issue.

Mutharika expelled a British diplomat who had described his as “becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism.” Former ruler Britain subsequently indefinitely suspended aid to Malawi, which later withdrew its expulsion order.

The European Union, Germany, Norway and the U.S. have also halted or suspended assistance to Malawi, raising governance questions.