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Cape Town – Malawi President Peter Mutharika is reportedly expected back home on Sunday, weeks after attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Mutharika's absence from the country for almost a month, prompted demands for him to explain what critics called his "absence without leave".
Mutharika addressed the UN gathering of world leaders in late September. He was not seen thereafter, with the presidency allegedly saying recently that he was conducting meetings with a "number of people one-by-one".
The presidency made this statement after rumours spread that the southern African country’s president was ill and was being hospitalised in the US. Some even suggested he was dead.
According to Nyasa Times, Vice President Saulos Chilima’s office confirmed that the president would return on Sunday, "rubbishing sensational reports about his condition, saying there has never been any cause for alarm at any time".
The report said that Mutharika had got wind of the rumours and "is not amused with the nonsense of wishing him dead".
Meawhile, according to Voice Of America, General Secretary of Malawi Law Society, Khumbo Soko, maintained that public demands for information about the president’s whereabouts were legitimate.
"Everyone is waiting with bated breath (great anticipation) for the president to touch down and possibly explain to Malawians where he was and more importantly why the statehouse didn’t find it important to tell Malawians where the president was after his engagement at the UN General Assembly.
"As you can imagine, it has given rise to quite some very unhappy speculation and I think all these were needless if people had just been told where the president was. There would have been no need for people to engage in speculation as it were," Soko was quoted as saying.
