The matter  became a hydra-headed monster Friday with Lilongwe magistrate Viva Nyimba setting the fugitive couple free.

Malawi’s state attorney will appeal this decision next week.

Malawi’s Information Minister Gospel Kazako says the success of this approach depends on South Africa furnishing vital documentation that is still outstanding.

He has no fear the Bushiri’s will not try to escape to another country.

“They are here because it their home and they feel safe,” he says.

He admits that allowing the Bushiri’s to was free was oversight on the part of Malawi authorities.

He maintains bilateral diplomatic relations are strong and healthy, despite this row over how the Bushiri’s entered Malawi without travel documents.

Outside the court, Shepherd Bashiri, wo claims to cure HIV/AIDS, blindness and to lift people out of poverty,  pumped the air and said the rule of law was prevailing.

“This is more important than any assets we have in South Africa,” said referring to the R5,5 million home in Centurion that has being forfeited to the State because he jumped bail.

Justice Minister Ronald Lamola says the Bushiri imbroglio is  matter of utmost urgency.

He is confident the Bushiri’s will present themselves back in court in South Africa to face theft, fraud and money laundering charges involving R105 million.

He says extradition proceedings have begun after the incident which has once again highlighted how porous South Africa’s borders are

Earlier this month the Bushiris  were granted R200 000 bail each.

A week ago they failed to present themselves at the Centurion police station south oof Pretoria in terms of their bail conditions.

At the time, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera was on an official visit to South Africa.

Authorities in Pretoria feared the Bushiris would try to leave the country aboard the presidential jet.

Chakwera’s flight home was delayed for seven hours as police and immigration officials searched it and carefully checked each member of the official entourage.

Both South African and Malawian officials discounted reports that the Bushiris had been officially smuggled out of South Africa.

Once Chakwera was back in  Lilongwe, Malawian officials issued a statement protesting at the South African treatment of their president.

The Bushiri’s arrived back in Malawi at the weekend and after hiding out in a luxury hotel in the capital presented themselves to authorities.

Kazako says they are exercising their right to go home because they felt their lives were in danger in South Africa.

Asked about extradition proceedings, Kazako says  Malawi is a nation of laws. The matter will be dealt with my by the book.

Ramaphosa says he’s awaiting  a full report on the matter and will stay any action he’s considered that.

“We are going to take action. That is for sure,” he said.

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi took a pasting in Parliament over the escape of the Malawian fugitives.

He maintained that his jurisdiction in the matter ended when the court granted them bail against his best advice.

There is a growing belief that the couple, travelling without passports, crossed South Africa’s northern border with Zimbabwe.

They might not have done this at Beit Bridge which is closed to individuals because of the COVID lockdown.

Locals wait at the border post offering to assist illegal crossings for R1000 a time.

The Bushiris have joined a list of celebrity fugitives from South Africa. In 2011 an Islamist terrorist know as the White Widow, Samantha Lewthwaite, believed to responsible for the Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi and other terror incidents escaped using South African travel documents. 

In 2015 Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir was spirited out of South Africa despite a Pretoria court order that he be handed to the International Criminal Court that wants him on war crimes charges in Darfur.

In 2017 former Zimbabwe first lady Grace Mugabe, wanted for assaulting her son’s girlfriend in Sandton, evaded authorities in South Africa.

The Gupta brothers, wanted for state capture during the presidency of Jacob Zuma, escaped South Africa and are sheltering in Dubai and India.

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His spokesman calls the unanimous decision by the country’s five top judges a serious miscarriage of justice and an attack on the foundations of Malawi’s democracy.

Peter Mutharika has six weeks to appeal the Constitutional Court ruling that Malawi must hold new elections within 150 days.

He’s been left in charge of the country torn by six months of hearings and violent demonstrations.

His main opponent Lazarus Chakwera , who claims he won the election, has hailed the ruling as a victory for democracy.

The court found massive and widespread irregularities in last May’s elections, including the use of typewriter correction fluid to alter results sheets.

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There has been looting by the protestors demanding the sacking of the electoral commission head they claim helped President Peter Mutharika rig the result.

Malawi’s opposition parties maintain typewriter correction fluid was used to change figures on results sheets from the May election won by Peter Mutharika with 38,6 % of the vote.

Lazarus Chakwera, who quit as Deputy President because he says Mutharika did not effectively fight corruption, maintains he won the election.

Soldiers have been deployed on the streets of Blantyre and Lilongwe to prevent looting, but companies including South Africa’s Multichoice have boarded up their shops as a precaution.

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The result was released last night after the High Court lifted an injunction imposed after it received 147 complaints of irregularities

Lazarus Chakwera, who’s Malawi Congress Party made most of the allegations of electoral fraud,  was yet again beaten into second place by Peter Mutharika.

Chakwera, who won 35,4% of the vote, was runner up in 2014.

Former Deputy President Saulos Chilima won 20 percent of the vote.

This was the closest-fought presidential election in Malawi’s democratic history. 

In addition to dealing with burgeoning economic challenges, the 78-year-old president has to ward off charges of corruption and of favouring those regions which most strongly support him.

The post Peter Mutharika narrowly wins second term as Malawi’s President appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Police in armored vehicles are dealing with angry crowds stoning government buildings in the capital Lilongwe.

The main opposition Malawi Congress Party has recorded 147 complaints in 10 of the country’s 28 voting districts.

Lazarus Chakwera says correction fluid, better known as tippex, has been used to alter  counting sheets. The same handwriting has been found on results from polling stations several kilometers apart.

Chakwera had won 35-and-a-half percent of votes after three-quarters were tallied at the electoral commission results centre. This left him trailing incumbent Peter Mutharika who has 50%.

Vice President Saulos Chilima  is a distant 18%.

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The election currently underway in Malawi perfectly illustrates the generational battle in African politics.

Peter Mutharika, vying for a second and final term as President, has a record of achievement to show voters.

He’s brought down inflation this past five years from 14% to 9%.

He is promising the people of one Africa’s poorest countries that Malawi is going  the way of Singapore or Malaysia.

This is somewhat hyperbolic given that more than half the nearly 19-million Malawians live under the poverty line.

Food shortages dog daily life and the 11% of the population with electricity suffer frequent power outages.

Mutharika’s image has been further dented by his having to return a $200 000 campaign donation from a businessman implicated in a $3-million scam involving the contract for supplying food to the police force.

There are seven faces on the presidential ballot paper competing for the votes of seven million electors.

Mutharika’s main rival is his former hand-picked  vice president Saulos Chilima who broke with him last year when it became clear he was running for a second term.

The incumbent, who is a former law professor, is 78 years old.

His sister-in-law Callista, widow of former President Bingu Wa Mutharika, is among those who have advised him that he has passed his sell-by date.

This is a telling argument with more than half of the electorate younger than 35 years.

Former telecoms executive Chilima is 46.

The third frontrunner is former Lazarus Chakwera who ran second to Mutharika in 2014.

He has revived Hastings Banda’s Malawi Congress  Party  and secured the endorsement of former President Joyce Banda. Chakwera is 64.

Age has been a determining factor in a number of recent African political contests.

In South Africa, Julius Malema and Mmusi Maimane, both 38, made much of the fact they were running against 66-year-old Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, 74, is going to extraordinary and unconstitutional lengths  to ward off the challenge of Pop-singer-turned MP Bobi Wine, who is 37.

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 76, had his work cut keeping 41-year-old Nelson Chamisa at bay.

Two African presidents have fallen to popular protest this year.

In Sudan, Omar Al Bashir is 75.

Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika is 82. 

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This will make for an exciting contest between President Peter Mutharika, his vice president Saulos Chilima and the man he beat in 2014, Lazarus Chakwera. Results are expected within eight days.

Voting in Malawi’s most keenly contested presidential and parliament elections to date has been peaceful despite some hitches.

Contender Saulos Chilima has to wait 40 minutes to cast his ballot because of confusion over which voting station he should have used.

Malawi’s presidential election is winner-take-all affair. There is no provision for a run off

In 2014 Peter Mutharika won with 36.4%of the vote off a 70% turnout.

Observers are saying the numbers will be even higher this time round. 

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