President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika’s trip to Malta for the Commonwealth Heads of State and Government Meeting (Chogm) continue to make headlines on the social media as flesh revelations indicates that a luggage containing confidential information went missing.
The development comes barely a day after a picture showing Mutharika stranded at the airport went viral on the social media attracting mixed reaction from various commentators with others saying it’s part of Public Relations (PR) by his office.
According to the Weekend nation dated 28, 2015, Mutharika spent 27-hours to travel from Malawi to Malta and it is reported that some of his luggage did not arrive with him as it was still stuck in Johannesburg and only arrived in Malta on Wednesday evening.
The paper says some of the bags left in South Africa contained confidential information and clothing to be used during his three-country trips which started in Malta this week.
Chief adviser to the President on economic affairs Collins Magalasi confirmed of the development with the local publication.
‘‘It is true that some of his luggage did not arrive until Wednesday evening. On commercial flights, there is only so much hand luggage the aides can carry and some of it is checked in,’’ Magalasi is quoted as saying.
Magalasi, who did not travel with the President, said Mutharika’s itinerary was from Lilongwe to Johannesburg where he had a layover of a few hours, then to Dubai before he connected to Malta from Rome International Airport.
It was at Rome International Airport where Mutharika arrived with his delegation from Dubai around 8am on a United Arab Emirates flight that it was discovered that his luggage was still in Johannesburg.
When Mutharika left the VIP lounge to board before the rest of the passengers, Air Malta officials had not finished entering luggage tag numbers into the system.
This made Mutharika wait in line with his aides and aid-de-camp and First Lady as the problem was sorted out.
President Mutharika abandoned the chartered Jet and used the Malawian passenger plane after receiving heavy criticisms from all corners over his trip to the United National General Assembly (UNGA) which say money amounting to MK300 million being blown off.
Mutharika is said to have accompanied by over 115 delegates to the summits and most of them were Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) followers who had nothing to do with the trip.
Speaking to the press after returning the summit, Mutharika accused the press of spreading force rumours about the trip and he asked for an apology.
