Malawi yet to serve Bineth trustees

Almost one week after government filed an application to turn former president the late president Bingu wa Mutharika’s Bineth Trust into a public trust, the Attorney General (AG) is yet to serve the Mutharikas with court documents on the substantive matter.

Lawyers representing the Mutharika family had to go to the High Court’s Commercial Division in the capital, Lilongwe on Monday to access the documents from the court record on their own, according to one of the lawyers, Kalekeni Kaphale.

Kaphale said in an interview this was not normal, arguing they were supposed to be served directly. He said they were going to consult with their clients before charting a way forward.

He disclosed that the AG’s office only served the Mutharikas with an injunction last week, preventing them from acting as trustees of Bineth Trust until the determination of the matter.

Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs spokesperson Apoche Itimu did not respond to a questionnaire on the matter at press time.

The government, if successful on the move, would make the Bineth Trust a replica of Press Trust established as a public trust but operated and used as the personal entity of Malawi’s founding president the late Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda.

The move, if executed successfully, will leave the Mutharika family with almost nothing, including the imposing Ndata Farm mansion in Thyolo, as most of the late president’s property is under the Bineth Trust.

The AG on Tuesday last week commenced proceedings for a declaration that the Bineth Trust is a charitable trust and for restoration of money that was withdrawn from the Bineth Trust accounts for purposes not in line with aims and objectives of the trust.

According to the signed deed title on the court record, the trustees of the Bineth Trust are the late Bingu wa Mutharika, chairperson, his late wife Ethel Mutharika, Peter Mutharika, vice-chairperson, Madaliso Mutharika and Duwa Mutharika, trustee and secretary.