Pretoria’s relations with new Malawian President Chakwera get off on wrong foot

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera, elected in June 2020, made his first official visit to South Africa last week, meeting President Cyril Ramaphosa. It all seemed at first to be a success.

But the visit became embroiled in the controversy over the near-simultaneous flight from South Africa of the indicted Malawian TV pastor Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary after they had skipped bail.

Both the Malawian and South African governments have denied media speculation that the multimillionaire Bushiris — who are believed to have helped bankroll Chakwera’s election campaign — escaped to Malawi on Chakwera’s plane.

But Chakwera’s flight home has soured relations with Pretoria anyway. On Monday, the Malawian government issued an angry statement complaining that the departure of Chakwera’s aircraft from Waterkloof Air Force Base on Friday had been delayed by seven hours, mainly because South African authorities wouldn’t allow the Malawian foreign minister and some other officials to board.

The Malawi government said the delay had been caused by SA’s “inexplicable refusal” to allow Chakwera’s advance party to board his plane at Waterkloof Air Force Base.

The statement said South African authorities had cited “unspecified security reasons” for its refusal. Pretoria had initially also refused — “for no apparent reason” —  to allow the Malawians to fly the presidential plane to Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport to pick up the advance party. But it had eventually allowed that after several more hours of delay.

Malawi said it was “justified in its dissatisfaction with the unspecified security reasons cited for the refusal”. It said Chakwera’s plane had been parked at Waterkloof military airbase, a highly secure facility, throughout his visit. 

The statement also complained that the passports and luggage of the advance team had been thoroughly checked by uniformed police officers and not immigration officers. 

It said that all the Malawian delegation’s luggage had been loaded on to Chakwera’s plane by South African military personnel and at the time of the scheduled departure of the plane at 3.30pm, there had been dozens of SA security personnel on the ground, who inspected the plane, its cargo and every passenger on entry. 

South Africa’s efforts to get the Bushiris back to face trial may put further strain on relations with Malawi. The offences for which they have been charged are not extraditable in Malawi, it has been reported.