Ethel Mutharika

Blantyre on 5 June. Her funeral took place at the Mutharikas farm in Thyolo, a tea growing district in southern Malawi.Following her death it was revealed that she had received cancer treatments in Malawi, South Africa and France

COMESA Secretary-General Sindiso Ndema Ngwenya, ambassadors from Nigeria, Norway and South Africa, Kenyan cabinet ministers and the Zambian-based Chewa King Gawa Undi as well as hundreds of government and ruling party officials and local Malawians. Clergy at the First Lady's funeral called on the country's political leaders to unite in order to honour Mutharika. The ceremony was a rare occasion which brought together political leaders that do not normally see eye to eye. In his sermon, based Luke 13: 6 - 9, Reverend Reynold Mangisa said it was high time political leaders changed and carried on with the unity started by the First Lady's death. "The unity should not end with the mourning period, but we should see it continue," said the priest. Leader of Opposition, John Tembo, who spoke on behalf of the opposition political parties, said the death of Madam Mutharika, which he described a tragedy since it robbed Malawi of the mother of the nation, should serve as a symbol of unity for now and forever. "It is necessary that as a country we be united over this loss and that the unity continues thereafter as that is what is expected of us," Tembo said.^[2] Reverend Felix Chingota's eulogy added that Mutharika emulated Jesus and described Mutharika as Jesus who was difficult to be understood by people because of having vision.^[3]