Bingu family risks losing Bineth trust
In a new twist to the battle between Malawi government and the family of former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika over his deceased estate, government has taken steps through courts to have Bineth Trust declared public.
If government succeeds on the move, Bineth Trust will become a replica of Press Trust, which was initially established as a public trust but operated and was used as a personal entity of Malawi’s founding president, the late Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
Peter Mutharika, the late Bingu’s brother, might have seen it coming when he pressed an alarm button that “government is into property grabbing” of his deceased brother’s property.
The move, if executed successfully, will leave the Mutharika family with almost nothing, including the imposing mansion at Ndata Farm in Thyolo, as most of the former president’s property is under the Bineth Trust.
The office of the Attorney General (AG) on Tuesday commenced proceedings at the Commercial Division of the High Court in the capital, Lilongwe for a declaration that the Bineth Trust is a charitable trust and for restoration of money that was withdrawn from the Bineth Trust accounts for purposes not in line with aims and objectives of the trust.
The AG argues that the trustees are in breach of trust.
The AG also obtained an injunction preventing the trustees of Bineth Trust from acting as trustees until the determination of the matter and also an order ordering them to declare all assets owned by Bineth Trust in Malawi or/and abroad.
The injunction, according to Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs spokesperson Apoche Itimu, was granted ex-parte by Judge Ken Manda and a date is yet to be set by the court for the matter to be heard.
But Kalekeni Kaphale, one of the lawyers representing the Mutharika family, said government’s move should not alarm anyone.
He said they were yet to be served with documents and would respond accordingly upon consultations with their clients.
Aims and objectives of the trust, according to the title deed we have seen and which the former president signed, is to administer the Bingu Academy of Sciences, now Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must), whose main objective is to enable Malawi to make a quantum leap in high-level research in natural and medical sciences specifically based on Malawi’s needs for technological, economic, industrial, manufacturing and agriculture development.
Government, through Estate Commissioner, froze all but one bank accounts belonging to the former president Mutharika over unpaid K5 billion (about $12.5m) estate duty from an estate estimated at K61 billion (about $152m) according to a government-hired valuer Yeremia Chihana.
But the bank accounts were unlocked last week after the signing of consent order, which among other things, the Mutharika family committed to pay the estate duty.
The Mutharika family is expected to appoint a valuer after they disagreed with Chihana’s valuation.
Mutharika died of cardiac arrest while serving as president on April 5 2012.
