Photo: Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Politics
Bingu wa Mutharika
President of Malawi, 2004 to 2012
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- Former President of Malawi 24 May 2004 to 5 April 2012
Bingu wa Mutharika was the third President of Malawi, from 24 May 2004 to 5 April 2012. He was elected on the UDF ticket in 2004, founded the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2005 and was re-elected in 2009. His Vice Presidents were Cassim Chilumpha and Joyce Banda.
He was born Brightson Webster Ryson Thom on 24 February 1934 in Kamoto village, Thyolo district; his parents were teachers. He studied economics at the University of Delhi in India and later earned a doctorate in development economics.
Before politics he was an economist and administrator. He worked in the civil services of Malawi and Zambia, as a loans officer at the World Bank, at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, and as Secretary General of COMESA, the regional trade bloc.
In his first term the economy grew and a fertiliser subsidy programme boosted maize harvests. He chaired the African Union in 2010 and 2011. His second term brought fuel and foreign currency shortages, tension with donors, and the July 2011 protests, in which 19 people were killed.
He died in office on 5 April 2012, the first Malawian head of state to do so, and Vice President Joyce Banda took over. His younger brother Peter Mutharika later became President.
