![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/DSCN0041-400x320.jpg\" "\\"DSCN0041-400x320\\"")
Tutu: Calls on Muluzi<\/p><\/div>\n
Son to the former president, Atupele Muluzi, confirmed to Nyasa Times that Tutu met Malawi\u2019s former president to congratulate him for his nomination for the Champion of Freedom Award by a pan-African organisation Africa Heritage Society (AHS).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a courtesy call and Archbishop Tutu congratulated Dr Muluzi for being nominated for Champion of Freedom Award,\u201d said Atupele in a telephone interview from Johannesburg.<\/p>\n
Muluzi \u2013 who ruled Malawi from 1994 to 2004 \u2013 had been nominated for the award in recognition of his contribution to the democratisation of Malawi. He was scheduled to be presented the award on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
Atupele said Tutu paid tribute to Muluzi saying Malawi enjoyed a peaceful transition to democracy because of his leadership as he was a catalyst in the fight against one party rule and was the first multiparty president after he defeated dictator Kamuzu Banda.<\/p>\n
Muluzi is also credited for consolidating democracy during his rule by establishing democracy institutions such as Office o f the Ombudsman, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Malawi Human Rights Commission and also promoting freedom of expression.<\/p>\n
He also restored rule of law and promoted human rights.<\/p>\n
His successor and incumbent Bingu wa Mutharika is being accused by human rights campaigners, donors and faith leaders of sliding Malawi back to dictatorship.<\/p>\n
Heritage Society is stressing the importance of recognising and honouring important leaders when they are still alive.<\/p>\n
Previous recipients of the award include Zambia\u2019s founding president Kenneth Kaunda.\u2014Nyasa Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu paid a courtesy call on Malawi\u2019s former president Bakili Muluzi in South Africa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[515,998,258,538],"class_list":["post-3643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-government","tag-muluzi","tag-malawi","tag-udf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}