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Madonna to face assessment
27/08/2007 16:40 - (SA)
Lilongwe - A Malawian
court-appointed official said on Monday he will visit Madonna
and her husband in early September to assess whether they would
be suitable parents for the child they are seeking to adopt.
"There has been a change of mind by my government minister
and she has allowed me to leave for the UK on September 4 and I
am expected to spend two weeks," Penstone Kilembe, who had been
refused permission to travel to Britain, told Reuters.
Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie's attempts to adopt
David Banda hit a snag earlier this month when the Malawian
minister of women and child development refused to grant Kilembe
permission to travel to Britain to access their suitability.
Minister Kate Kainja told a Malawian weekly "we feel Mr
Kilembe personalised the whole issue" and other people could go.
Suggestions dismissed
A Malawi newspaper reported earlier this month Kilembe was
prevented from travelling to Britain because he had accepted a
plane ticket and money from Madonna without government approval.
Kilembe dismissed the suggestions he asked the pop star for
a ticket.
The High Court of Malawi appointed Kilembe to travel to
Britain twice and was to have relied on his testimony in ruling
whether Madonna should adopt the child in a hearing next year.
Madonna took David Banda from Malawi last October when he
was 13 months old after his father Yohane Banda had placed him
in an orphanage following the death of his wife.
- Reuters
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South Africa
