Academics in South Africa have said Cyril Ramaphosa’s government intense focus on Prophet Shepherd Bushiri case is somewhat too much and opens the authorities up for errors as witnessed with various conflicting messages from too many officials.
Speaking on the issue University of South Africa Professor Lesiba Teffo said
“South Africa is not on a strong moral ground given how they handled recent cases involving Grace Mugabe, Al Bashir and the Guptas. Things like these make RSA look like a banana republic. Bushiri saga just shows that we are not equal before the law.”
Tshwane University of Technology’s Levy Ndou, a political analyst, added that South Africa has to pursue the matter diplomatically because the Malawian government is not likely to bring Bushiri back.
University of Johannesburg’s Dr Ralph Mathekga says South Africa is supposed to provide leadership in the region and on the continent but the decay in the justice and criminal system is worrisome.
“It is bad for Malawi government if Bushiri was truly smuggled by his President but South Africa must be embarrassed that they cannot police their borders”.
Bushiri, the leader of the Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) church, has said there is a “larger crusade to try and persecute my name in the media by a team of white police officers notably from the Hawks.”
The prophet has opened an extortion and corruption case against the officers , who allegedly tried to extort R10 million from him.
He said nothing has happened to the police officers and they have now embarked on issuing warrants of arrests against him.
Said Bushiri:
“These are white police officers that I opened extortion and corruption cases against in 2018 after they tried, unsuccessfully, to extort about R10 million from me. At the time, they were not diffident and on record saying that “failure to pay the R10million would result in making my life a living hell,” he said.
“Instead, these officers are let loose, riding on the back state resources, and embarked on a crusade to cover up their crimes by launching and issuing numerous warrants of arrests against me.
“For the record I reiterate and confirm that the very same white police officers are same police officers who arrested me in Feb 2019. As though is not enough, they are again same white police officers who arrested me in October 2020, and, again, without any official confirmation I bet it’s the same police officers behind these warrants of arrest.
“I have been advised—which advice I accept—that rape cases are not handled by hawks but South African Police (SAPS) designated unit known as Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS).
“I have since launched complaints on how Hawks or same white police officers were recruiting girls to fabricate charges of rape and to date no reprieve for me. Some of these were confirmed through various videos of those who came back to confess such wrongful conduct,” he said.
