Malawi's Vice-President, Scott hold closed-door meeting

Malawi's Vice-President, Scott hold closed-door meeting
By Bright Mukwasa
Mon 24 Oct. 2011, 08:30 CAT

MALAWI Vice-President Joyce Banda yesterday arrived in the country but refused to talk to local journalists who sought her comments on President Michael Sata's demand for an apology for humiliatingly deporting him when he was opposition leader.

Vice-President Banda arrived aboard an Air Malawi plane at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport at 10:15 hours and she was welcomed by Vice-President Guy Scott, government officials and singing Patriotic Front cadres.

Upon arrival at the airport, Vice-President Banda waved to the cadres and immediately got into the motorcade and proceeded to Pamodzi Hotel where she had a closed-door meeting with Vice-President Scott, PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba and other government officials.

Vice-President Scott said his Malawian counterpart could not talk to the media because she was in the country in her private capacity.

Vice-President Banda, who was President Bingu wa Mutharika's running mate, has launched the People's Party (PP), and she is expected to lead the party in that country's 2014 presidential polls.

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika's government declared Sata a prohibited immigrant in 2007 when as opposition politician he entered Malawi to visit a former president.

Sata was bundled into a car, driven several hundred kilometres, dumped at the border and told he could never return.

But the embattled Mutharika-led Malawi government finally bowed to pressure and revoked the deportation order issued against President Sata.