Shepherd Bushiri adamant as South Africa court orders his arrest
Enlightened Christian Gathering leader Shepherd Bushiri has said he is not shocked by three warrants of arrest issued by the Pretoria Magistrate Court over rape allegations.
That country’s media indicated that the Pretoria Magistrate Court issued the warrants on November 19. They relate to two different rape cases allegedly registered in 2018 and a third one registered in 2020.
But in a statement Monday, Bushiri described the warrants as part of the larger crusade to try and persecute his name in the media by some white police officers from the Hawks.
“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 clear and on record saying that “failure to pay the R10 million would result in immediate retaliation”.
“Despite confirming opening of such cases, South African Authorities haven’t taken any relevant steps to bring to book these white police officers. Instead, these officers were let loose, riding on the back [of] State resources, and embarked on a crusade to cover up their crimes by launching and issuing numerous warrants of arrests against me,” Bushiri said.
According to Bushiri, rape cases are not handled by Hawks but South African Police designated unit known as Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS).
“As keen as I am to clear my name, I unequivocally refuse to feed the media spectacle created by white police officers bent to [sic] cover up their crimes. My conscious is very clear and so it shall remain,” reads the statement.
On Thursday last week, the Lilongwe Principal Magistrate Court released Bushiri and his wife Mary, unconditionally following their arrest by the Malawi Police Service on Wednesday who acted on a warrant of arrest from Interpol Pretoria.
Principal Magistrate Viva Nyimba further ordered that the next court appearance by the Bushiris should come through summons and not an arrest.
