{"id":9732,"date":"2012-04-07T15:58:45","date_gmt":"2012-04-07T13:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/update-2-malawi-vp-banda-takes-over-after-mutharika-death\/"},"modified":"2012-04-07T15:58:45","modified_gmt":"2012-04-07T13:58:45","slug":"update-2-malawi-vp-banda-takes-over-after-mutharika-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-2-malawi-vp-banda-takes-over-after-mutharika-death\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 2-Malawi VP Banda takes over after Mutharika death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Vice-President Joyce Banda says &#8220;constitution prevails&#8221;<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Army and police chiefs back constitutional transition<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Calm on the streets of Lilongwe, Blantyre<\/p>\n<p> (Releads with Banda takes over, news conference, UK reaction,<br \/>\ndetails)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Mabvuto Banda<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>LILONGWE, April 7 (Reuters) &#8211; Malawian Vice-President Joyce<br \/>\nBanda took over the running of the southern African nation on<br \/>\nSaturday after the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika, and<br \/>\nfears of a succession struggle receded as state institutions<br \/>\nbacked the constitutional handover.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The government only officially confirmed 78-year-old<br \/>\nMutharika&#8217;s death earlier on Saturday, two days after he had<br \/>\ndied following a heart attack.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>His body had been flown to a military hospital in South<br \/>\nAfrica.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The delay in the announcement had raised worries about a<br \/>\npolitical crisis because Banda had been expelled from<br \/>\nMutharika&#8217;s ruling DPP party in 2010 after an argument about the<br \/>\nsuccession, though she retained her state position.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Banda, 61, who will be southern Africa&#8217;s first female head<br \/>\nof state, appeared at a news conference in the capital Lilongwe<br \/>\nto declare 10 days of official mourning for Mutharika, who had<br \/>\nruled for eight years. She ordered national flags to be flown at<br \/>\nhalf-mast and the state broadcaster to play sombre music.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Vice-President Joyce Banda says &#8220;constitution prevails&#8221; * Army and police chiefs back constitutional transition * Calm on the streets of Lilongwe, Blantyre (Releads with Banda takes over, news conference, UK reaction, details) By Mabvuto Banda LILONGWE, April 7 (Reuters) &#8211; Malawian Vice-President Joyce Banda took over the running of the southern African nation on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}