Prophet Shepherd Bushiri, founder of the Enlightened Christian Gathering Church and a fraud and money laundering accused, addresses his followers outside the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court after he was granted bail. Pictures and videos: Oupa Mokoena/ African News Agency (ANA)
Johannesburg - Right to Justice, a Johannesburg-based NGO, has called for the State prosecutor and the investigating officer in the Shepherd Bushiri matter to come clean on the real details of the case.
Bushiri, a Malawian-born televangelist, was charged with corruption and money laundering in 2018 but fled the country allegedly with the assistance of the Malawian government.
While The Star was investigating possible undue practices by the prosecutor and the investigator involved in the case, the National Prosecuting Authority’s head of communications, Bulelwa Makeke, told The Star that the prosecutor may not be mentioned because “there is a court order whereby the names and identities of the prosecutors who are dealing with the Bushiri-related matters may not be published, nor may their images be published, be recorded and used in broadcasts”.
On the 19th of April 2023, The Star requested Makeke to forward the court order but to no avail.
The Star is following allegations that some in the prosecution may have been in clandestine contact with Bushiri and are harassing the South African accused in order to pin Bushiri’s crimes on them.
The organisation has also written to Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) to complain about the case.
Several of Bushiri’s co-accused, who had been detained for several months, argued for their right to travel, which was granted by the magistrate. The prosecutor and investigating officer did not agree and the defendants re-enforced the judgment through the high court, which also ruled in their favour.
It is believed that the magistrate was given the impression that the prosecutor had appealed to the high court for the travel documents of the accused to be returned to them. However, an appeal was not lodged to the court until three weeks later.
Speaking for Right to Justice, Lonwabo Mtyando said: “It is bizarre that while the NPA knows Bushiri’s exact location they’ve made no attempts to arrest him or extradite him in Malawi. The great effort displayed at arresting the Facebook rapist Thabo Bester and his partner, Nandipha Magudumana, is not shown to Bushiri.
“The worshippers at his church who were duped by him still face the brunt of the NPA while he is free in his country. The victims of his church still have their travel documents confiscated and still pay lawyers for a stagnant case. We have learnt with disbelief that the investigator is still looking for evidence, four years later, while they know where Bushiri is.”
At the time of Bushiri’s arrest, the then parliamentary portfolio chair on home affairs, advocate Bongani Bongo, told the media that it was glaring that some senior officials in the South African government, senior airport staff and senior Malawian officials were involved in Bushiri’s escape and that innocent church members were left to take the fall.
“It is no coincidence that the Malawi presidential jet left OR Tambo International Airport six hours later than it was scheduled to leave, with a different register of persons departing than the ones that arrived, and Bushiri surfaces in Malawi to the praise of many in government. That’s not a coincidence. The people charged here are just for optics,” Bongo said.
The Star asked the prosecutor how far the process of extraditing Mr Bushiri back to South Africa was, if she believed that the Malawian government was protecting Bushiri and how she would respond to a call for her to recuse herself from the case, but it was Makeke who responded.
“It would be totally inappropriate and counter-productive to the extradition processes currently under way for the NPA to respond to the nature of your questions, especially as they refer to South Africa’s engagements with the Malawian government, at a very sensitive stage of country-to-country interactions,” Makeke said.
However, the Malawian government has contradicted Makeke and said there was no extradition process to return Bushiri to South Africa.
The Malawi government said Bushiri’s church was crucial to fostering national unity, the Minister of Civic Education and National Unity, Timothy Mtambo, told Bushiri’s church members.
The minister said the role of the church was to raise citizens of immaculate fortitude and stamina, claiming communities were built by strong individuals and strong individuals came from strong families with great values.
Bushiri fled on the day the Malawian president left the country after what looked like a choreographed state visit. Bushiri later donated K4 million (about R68 000) to the Malawi police, Malawi Defence Force, Malawi Prisons and Malawi Immigration Services.
The Star