PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Malawian president to unveil mausoleum for fallen first lady
Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - Tanzanian president Jokaya Kikwete and his Zambian counterpart Rupiah Bwezani Banda, will join Malawians on Friday as President Bingu wa Mutharika unveils a mausoleum for his late wife.
The mausoleum, described as a state-of-the art edifice for fallen First Lady Ethel Mutharika, is sited at the Malawi leader's private Ndata Farm in the southern tea-growing district of Thyolo, some 30 kilometres south of the commercial capital, Blantyre.
A protocol official told PANA that Kikwete is scheduled to land at Chileka International Airport at 7am local time (0500 GMT) while Banda will follow half an hour later.
"We're yet to get confirmation from President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe," said the official who could not be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
The white-painted landmark mausoleum, christened “Mpumulo wa Bata” (loosely translated from Malawi lingua franca Chichewa as “Peaceful Rest”), has been constructed over the years by the Portuguese multi-national Mota Engel.
Ethel, born of a Malawian father and a Zimbabwean mother, died aged 63 in 2007 of cancer complications.
The cost of the mausoleum, complete with a library and other facilities, has not been revealed. But it is on the president's private farm that also has a mansion, he says will be his retirement home when he leaves State House after completing his official two five-year terms in 2014.
Ethel and Mutharika, the economist-turned politician, had been married for 37 years. Between them they have three daughters and a son.
Mutharika, 76, re-married in April this year to his former Tourism minister and legislator Callista Chimombo, 50, in grand style officiated by the head of the Catholic church in Malawi, Archbishop Tarcisius Ziyaye.
The new First Lady has two young children from her earlier marriage to late entrepreneur Suta Chimbo.
-0- PANA RT/MA 23Dec2010
The mausoleum, described as a state-of-the art edifice for fallen First Lady Ethel Mutharika, is sited at the Malawi leader's private Ndata Farm in the southern tea-growing district of Thyolo, some 30 kilometres south of the commercial capital, Blantyre.
A protocol official told PANA that Kikwete is scheduled to land at Chileka International Airport at 7am local time (0500 GMT) while Banda will follow half an hour later.
"We're yet to get confirmation from President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe," said the official who could not be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
The white-painted landmark mausoleum, christened “Mpumulo wa Bata” (loosely translated from Malawi lingua franca Chichewa as “Peaceful Rest”), has been constructed over the years by the Portuguese multi-national Mota Engel.
Ethel, born of a Malawian father and a Zimbabwean mother, died aged 63 in 2007 of cancer complications.
The cost of the mausoleum, complete with a library and other facilities, has not been revealed. But it is on the president's private farm that also has a mansion, he says will be his retirement home when he leaves State House after completing his official two five-year terms in 2014.
Ethel and Mutharika, the economist-turned politician, had been married for 37 years. Between them they have three daughters and a son.
Mutharika, 76, re-married in April this year to his former Tourism minister and legislator Callista Chimombo, 50, in grand style officiated by the head of the Catholic church in Malawi, Archbishop Tarcisius Ziyaye.
The new First Lady has two young children from her earlier marriage to late entrepreneur Suta Chimbo.
-0- PANA RT/MA 23Dec2010
