BLANTYRE—The dead body of Pres Bingu wa Mutharika will be flown from South Africa to Malawi on Thursday, a week after he died from a heart attack, government officials have said.

His body was taken to a South African military hospital where it was pronounced dead on arrival.

The government had said Mutharika was being flown to South Africa for treatment but hospital sources said the president died in Malawi and it was his dead body that was sent to South Africa.

Speculation was that since the death was sudden, government needed time to prepare before making the announcement which was made on Saturday, the same day a new president was sworn in.

New president Joyce Banda declared 10 days of mourning for Mutharika but there has been no official word yet on the date of his funeral.

Mutharika, who was 78, will be laid to rest at his home at his Ndata Farm in Thyolo. Mutharika's first wife Ethel, who died in 2007 and was accorded an expensive national funeral, is also buried at the farm.
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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment