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Malawi president says he is in good health

  • But concedes he was suffering from rheumatism
  • I have more than nine lives—Mutharika

 

Malawi president Peter Mutharika has told journalists in Lilongwe that he is in good health and ‘will be around for a long time’.

APM: I will be around for a long time
APM: I will be around for a long time

He was dispelling rumours that he was ill and hospitalised in the United States where he went to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last month. But he conceded that he was suffering from rheumatism.

“I have been having a problem with my right shoulder, but I am recovering. In the next two weeks I should be 100 percent OK. Right now I am at around 80 percent,” said Mutharika who appeared at a media conference at the Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe (today) Friday.

Mutharika returned from the US on Sunday, October 16.

The Malawi leader went on to attack the media for speculating and publishing exaggerating stories about his health and spreading rumours about his death.

Mutharika who looked energetic and walked with pomp, waved at the gathering using his both arms, in a bid to silence his critics who were saying he was ill.

He advised the media to aim at reporting correct news and not create news.

Mutharika also assured the gathering which included government ministers, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials and supporters and the international community, that despite having a small problem with his right arm he was in excellent health.

“My right arm had a slight rheumatism problem and it went numb. My doctor advised me that I should not shake it for I had just went through an operation and it was injected with medicine,” he said, referring to what transpired on his arrived last Sunday when he waved and greeted delegates using his left arm a thing that raised suspicions and speculations on the president’s health.

Added Mutharika: “They say a cat has nine lives, but Peter Mutharika has more than nine lives. I have been killed and resurrected many times. If the opposition was in jubilation thinking that they will face an easier candidate in 2019 let me tell them that I am so much alive and will face them in the elections and put them into oblivion where they belong.”

Commenting on other issues affecting the country, the president said he was saddened with the fire that gutted Lilongwe main market two weeks after he left the country for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and will make sure that all the affected are well taken care off.

He also expressed sadness over the death of conjoined twins who were set to be separated at Kamuzu Central Hospital on Friday.

Read in depth analysis of this developing story and other stories tomorrow in the Weekend Nation.

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