‘APM back weekend’
Government has broken the silence on the return of President Peter Mutharika, who left the country 21 days ago, saying he is due to come back home on an unspecified day this weekend.
Silence from State House and the government machinery has resulted in social media speculation that the President may have undergone an operation in the United States of America (USA) and was recuperating, but the Minister of Information, Communications and Technology Malison Ndau dismissed the rumours.
However, he conceded that government has not done well to remain silent on the President’s itinerary in the US which kept Malawians inthe dark 10 days after other heads of State left New York at the end of the 2016 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
While indicating that the President had been meeting groups and individuals he could not accommodate during UNGA, Ndau could not explain the silence by the State House communications team on the President’s whereabouts and engagements during the past 10 days.
“I am aware of the speculations about the President, but I can tell you that he has been busy with well-wishers who he failed to meet during the General Assembly.
“Upon completion of those engagements, he will return this week and upon arrival, he will address all the questions that Malawians have,” Ndau said.
He added: “I know people are complaining, but the President has been busy and he is coming back. He is not sick.”
Although Ndau referred this reporter to State House Press Office for details of Mutharika’s exact date of arrival, two sources have confided in The Nation that the President is due to open the second Malawi Investment Forum (MIF) which begins on Monday in Lilongwe.
Meanwhile, State House has remained mum on the actual return date as communications director Bright Molande and State House director general Peter Mukhito pushed the matter to presidential press secretary Mgeme Kalilani whose phone went unanswered.
Mutharika left Malawi for UNGA on September 16 2016 on a chartered plane to South Africa from where he connected on a commercial flight to New York.
Some members of his delegation, including Minister of Foreign Affairs Francis Kasaila, have since returned home among them.n
