Bingu estate more than K61bn—Assessor
Yeremiah Chihana, an evaluator of the deceased estate of former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika, has said the wealth of the estate is expected to go beyond K61 billion (about $152m) after full assessment.
Chihana was reacting to the story in the Weekend Nation that quoted lawyers representing the Estate Commissioner, Lusungu Gondwe, and lawyer representing Mutharika’s daughters, Kalekeni Kaphale, confirming the drop of the initial estimate of K61 billion to K51 billion.
Though the drop to K51 billion (about $127m) appears on some court documents prepared and filed, according to the lawyers, Chihana said that did not come from his evaluation and could be a fruit of miscalculation.
He said recent discoveries show that Mutharika had houses in Singapore and some property in the United States of America (USA), arguing there is no way the estimate would go down.
Chihana said: “It will be more than K61 billion. The former president had houses in Singapore and some property in the US; I did not include that in my initial evalutation. It’s not only this, there is more property that was left out and we will include all that.”
The evaluator, however, disclosed government has repossessed some land Mutharika did not pay for fully, which made part of the property counted for in the initial evaluation report, but insisted the estimate of K61 billion has not changed.
He said there are also houses Mutharika bought from Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) and paid K40 million, and remained with some balances, saying it is an issue that was being sorted out.
Mutharika daughters, Duwa and Tapiwa, ceased to be administrators of the estate after consent was entered at the High Court in Zomba between them and their stepmother, Callista, who also obtained letters of administration separately, and had the letters set aside, opting for an out-of-court settlement.
New administrators that were appointed on July 12 this year are Kaphale and Modecai Mshisha, on the side of the Mutharika daughters in the matter and James Tomoka, lawyer for the former first lady Callista.
If this person is worth the salt why is he altering the figures? I thought when he was revealing his findings he had gathered enough information to ably prosecute late Bingu? But from the look of things it shows that he has chosen to release the information in chunks, why? Such type of professionalism smacks of chicanery and very doubtful if whatever is being cooked has any truth in it. Poverty in Malawi is a disease that has came to stay and it will haunt us until the end of the world. In any case if what is being said is true why should one be interested in rushing to newspapers instead of handing over the findings to the relevant authorities, i. e. courts? This is the very same reason people are coming up with the “Politically motivated” songs due to the handling of all this nonsense? Time will tell, but when the gong sounds please don’t cry foul.