President Peter Mutharika has directed that veteran politician Gwanda Chakuamba who died on Monday in Blantyre has to be buried with full military honours.<\/p>\n
Chakuamba, who was rushed to Seventh-day Adventist Hospital in Blantyre last week, succumbed to a heart problem at the age of 82 years.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued yesterday, President Peter Mutharika and the First Lady have described Chakuamba as a selfless Malawian nationalist who served the country in various high ranking public portfolios.<\/p>\n
According to the statement, Chakuamba\u2019s efforts towards the country\u2019s political development made government to send him to India for specialised treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn further recognition of Gwanda Chakuamba\u2019s legacy to the development of Malawi, President Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika has ordered that the body of the late Gwandanguluwe Chakuamba Phiri be interred with full military honours,\u201d reads the statement.<\/p>\n
Reacting to the news former president Bakili Muluzi said he was saddened by Chakuamba\u2019s death and described him as a visionary and determined leader Malawi has had.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will remember Gwanda Chakuamba as a fearless politician. This country cannot talk about the hard fought independence without mentioning Gwanda Chakuamba. He contributed a lot to the politics of this nation and indeed Malawi has lost a true patriotic son,\u201d Muluzi said.<\/p>\n
Moses Dossi, Chakuamba\u2019s close ally who fought to ensure that Chakuamba has comfortable retirement, said he will personally miss his friend and that he was among the few Malawians who loved the country and fought for the good of the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hopeful that he will recover. When I called the hospital this morning, I was told he is getting better now this news has shocked me and I will always remember my friend as a determined person.<\/p>\n
\u201cChakuamba was well known for his fighting spirit. I will always remember him and think highly of him for all that he did for this nation,\u201d Dossi said.<\/p>\n
According to a family spokesperson, King Rudi, the family is yet to decide on Chakuamba\u2019s burial place. He, however, hinted that he is likely to be buried at his home in Nsanje.<\/p>\n
We have a detailed obituary for Chakuamba and his life in pictures on pages 14 and 35.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Peter Mutharika has directed that veteran politician Gwanda Chakuamba who died on Monday in Blantyre has to be buried with full military honours. Chakuamba, who was rushed to Seventh-day Adventist Hospital in Blantyre last week, succumbed to a heart problem at the age of 82 years. In a statement issued yesterday, President Peter Mutharika […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34325,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34319\/revisions\/34325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}