Bushiri explains police encounter

South Africa-based Malawian prophet Shepherd Bushiri says he handed himself to Pretoria West Police on Saturday evening following a hunt by the rainbow nation’s law enforcers in connection with an alleged criminal complaint.

In an interview on Sunday, Prophet Shepherd Bushiri Ministries director of communications Ephraim Nyondo said that Bushiri went to the police station to give a statement after learning that police were looking for him.

He said that earlier on Saturday police detectives went to Bushiri’s church, Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG), to get a caution statement but did not find him as he was in Malawi.

Said Nyondo: “He [Bushiri] hasn’t handed himself to police as such because he does not have any problem with the law. But the fact is that a certain lady opened a case against the prophet regarding a prophecy the prophet made about her in church.

“The police just wanted to hear the side of the prophet, but the prophet was in Malawi. He arrived in South Africa around 6pm and after being notified about the police looking for him, he went straight to police to give the statement.”

The woman, identified as Lebogang Mpane, pressed a criminal charge against the tycoon prophet last month, saying Bushiri addressed her as a witch in one of his prophetic sermons beamed live on television.

On Sunday, several South African newspapers, including The Citizen and Sunday World, reported that detectives were looking for Bushiri in connection with a case brought against him by a Rustenburg businesswoman.

Nyondo said Bushiri, who identifies himself as Major 1, made the said prophecy about three years ago. He said the prophet was accompanied to the police station by his lawyers.

Bushiri has since denied the allegations made against him, according to Nyondo.

But the Sunday World reported that when police arrived at his Pretoria church and were told he was out of the country, they suspected that the pastors and security guards were hiding the prophet, a development that resulted in a scuffle between the two parties.

Reads the Sunday World report: “According to the officers, the scuffle between the two groups was defused after Bushiri’s lawyer, Ntsako Baloyi, was called to the scene to speak to the officers.”

In recent times, the controversial charismatic prophet has been under the spotlight for wrong reasons having been reportedly under investigations by that country’s elite police, the Hawks, on money laundering charges.

South African media reported that Bushiri was apparently making so much money from his churches in that country that he was able to remit about 15 million rand (about K900 million) a month back to Malawi. They allege the money was taken out of South Africa in vehicles and his private jet.

The Hawks confirmed investigating the pastor but cautioned that the case was in its early stages and could not divulge or confirm any details.

Last month, while visiting the United States of America, security agents in that country took all his phones and laptop with passwords allegedly on instruction or advice from the South African police.

The image of Bushiri was further tarnished by allegations of rape levelled against him, but he denied the claims, saying the claimants  were paid by his enemies to concoct the allegations.

In March, he successfully obtained an injunction stopping a demonstration by a group of Christians who gathered in Johannesburg to march against him.