Malawi President will not attend Mugabe’s inauguration

Mugabe’s closest ally in SADC Malawian President Bingu Mutharika has become the first African leader to snub Mugabe’s inauguration for a Sixth term slated for Sunday.

However, Mutharika will send his brother, Peter Mutharika.

Mutharika’s brother will be joined by foreign affairs minister Joyce Banda and his party’s secretary general Hetherwick Ntaba.

Bingu whose late wife’s father was a Zimbabwean worker, has so far failed to condemn the Zimbabwean government, believing that the crisis there should be sorted out by Zimbabweans and not by outsiders. Mutharika was married to a Zimbabwean woman,Ethel.

But former president Bakili Muluzi has condemned the violence, saying that Mugabe should ensure that elections in his country are “free and fair”.