The impoverished nation was plunged into a long night of intrigue after Mutharika’s heart attack on Thursday in the capital Lilongwe. He was rushed to hospital, but doctors were unable to save him, a source at the hospital said.
“He died... after two hours of resuscitation,” the source said.
“The president died yesterday, and his body has been flown to South Africa for embalming and for the process to be dignified, the official announcement will come later on,” a government official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Medical sources said the former World Bank economist had been flown out because a power and energy crisis in the nation of 13 million was so severe the Lilongwe state hospital would have been unable to carry out a proper autopsy or even keep his body refrigerated.
Many Malawians blamed Mutharika personally for the economic woes, which stemmed ultimately from a diplomatic spat with former colonial power Britain a year ago.
"We know he is dead and unfortunately he died at a local, poor hospital which he never cared about - no drugs, no power," said Chimwemwe Phiri, a Lilongwe businessman waiting in a snaking line of cars for fuel at a petrol station.
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