Chanthunya arrested in SA

Fugitive Blantyre businessperson Misozi Chanthunya was arrested on Tuesday morning in South Africa, ending 18 months of a manhunt, the Malawi Police Service (MPS) disclosed.

Chanthunya has been on the run since August 2010, when he fled Malawi allegedly with the assistance of some law-enforcers, after the body of his girlfriend, a 25-year-old Zimbabwean national, Linda Gasa, was found buried under a concrete floor in a bathroom at Mwala Cottage in Monkey Bay, Mangochi, belonging to the Chanthunyas.

Malawi Police director of Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Lexa Chalera said in an exclusive interview on Tuesday her department had requested Interpol Pretoria to help after receiving a tip-off that Chanthunya was hiding in North West Province of South Africa.

“We got a tip-off last week that he [Chanthunya] was hiding at a residence of a Malawian woman in Rustenburg in North West Province. We alerted our colleagues who informed us this morning that they had identified and arrested Misozi Chanthunya,” said Deputy Commissioner Chalera, adding that the suspect is being held by Rustenburg Police.

She said Malawi Police followed several leads after receiving different reports and at one point they went to Maputo, Mozambique.

Chalera refused to identify the Malawian lady at whose house Chanthunya was allegedly hiding, but said she has not been arrested and that police are investigating her role.

Said Chalera: “What remains is that our Ministry of Justice, through the Director of Public Prosecutions [DPP], will give us necessary procedures and tools to bring back the fugitive to answer all appropriate charges.”

Gasa, a former Malawi College of Accountancy (MCA) student, was reported missing on August 4 2010 before her body was discovered on September 16 2010. She was reportedly last seen in the company of Chanthunya, a married man. A post-mortem showed that Gasa died of either poisoning or suffocation.