MONDAY, 5.30PM:
THE Malawi High Court on Monday began the process of validating the will left by late former president Hastings Kamuzu Banda, at the request of his family.
Banda’s will has been the object of ongoing controversy after it was revealed following his death in November that most of the sizeable fortune he amassed during his 30 years in power had been left to his long-time companion and “official hostess” Cecilia Kadzamira.
This breaks a Malawian tradition that when a man dies his property is never left to a person outside the village. Khuze Kapeta, a lawyer representing the aggrieved Banda family, said he is advising some 1 000 of Banda’s relatives on the implications of the will and of any possible lawsuit if the will is deemed unauthentic.
One of Banda’s nephews, Fred Kazombo, said on Monday that no male relative has been given anything and charged that the will is a fake. President Bakili Muluzi last week expressed his doubt as to the authenticity of the will and offered to provide state support to aggrieved family members pending the outcome of the hearing.