{"id":9740,"date":"2012-04-08T03:59:12","date_gmt":"2012-04-08T01:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/update-5-womens-activist-banda-becomes-malawis-president\/"},"modified":"2012-04-08T03:59:12","modified_gmt":"2012-04-08T01:59:12","slug":"update-5-womens-activist-banda-becomes-malawis-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-5-womens-activist-banda-becomes-malawis-president\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 5-Women’s activist Banda becomes Malawi’s president"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

* She is southern Africa’s first female head of state<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Banda succeeds Bingu wa Mutharika, who died on Thursday<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Army and police chiefs back constitutional transition<\/p>\n

(Adds White House comment, paragraphs 23-24)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mabvuto Banda<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LILONGWE, April 7 (Reuters) – Prominent women’s rights
\ncampaigner Joyce Banda was sworn in as Malawi’s president on
\nSaturday, becoming southern Africa’s first female head of state
\nand raising hopes for a fresh start in the small, poor nation
\nafter the death of her mercurial predecessor.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Banda, a 61-year-old policeman’s daughter who has won
\ninternational recognition for championing the education of
\nunderprivileged girls, had served as vice president under Bingu
\nwa Mutharika, who died on Thursday following a heart attack.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

She succeeded him under the terms of the constitution.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Aid-dependent Malawi had slid into economic crisis over the
\nlast year as Mutharika, a professorial but temperamental former
\nWorld Bank economist, squabbled with major western donors who
\nthen froze millions of dollars of assistance.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Banda took the oath of office on Saturday in the
\nChinese-built National Assembly in the capital Lilongwe, as
\nflags flew at half mast in mourning for Mutharika, whose death
\nwas only officially announced by Malawi’s government on
\nSaturday.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* She is southern Africa’s first female head of state * Banda succeeds Bingu wa Mutharika, who died on Thursday * Army and police chiefs back constitutional transition (Adds White House comment, paragraphs 23-24) By Mabvuto Banda LILONGWE, April 7 (Reuters) – Prominent women’s rights campaigner Joyce Banda was sworn in as Malawi’s president on […]<\/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-9740","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\/9740","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=9740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}