Private ceremony for Bingu memorial

The family of the late president Bingu wa Mutharika has opted to hold a low-key and private memorial service for the departed leader who died of cardiac arrest in April 2012.

Since his death, the family has been holding high-profile and public memorial services at the late president’s magnificent Ndata residence in Thyolo.

But State House press secretary Mgeme Kalirani said in an interview on Saturday that, unlike the previous years, President Peter Mutharika will today attend a private memorial service for his departed brother at Chingadzi Catholic Parish in Thyolo.

“It is a private memorial service. It will be followed by a family meeting at Ndata,” the press secretary said.

Former first lady Callista Mutharika, who has been in the news recently attacking the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), is on record to have told private-owned Zodiak Broadcasting Corporation (ZBS) that she got a call from a family member that the memorial service —apparently the public one—was cancelled.

Last year, Mutharika, his second in command Saulos Chilima, First Deputy Speaker Esther Mcheka Chilenje, Chief Justice Andrew Nyirenda and former Speaker Henry Chimunthu Banda were among dignitaries who attended Bingu’s fifth memorial anniversary at Ndata.

Also in attendance were Bingu’s widow Callista, and the late president’s children and relatives.