Shepherd Bushiri | |
|---|---|
| Church | Enlightened Christian Gathering, The Jesus Nation Church |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Mzuzu, Malawi |
| Nationality | Malawian |
| Denomination | Christianity |
| Residence | Malawi |
| Spouse | Mary Bushiri |
| Occupation | Prophet, Businessman |
| Education | Moyale Secondary School Therapon University |
Shepherd Bushiri (born Chipiliro Gama, 20 February 1983) also known as Major 1 is a Malawian self-proclaimed prophet, businessman, and author. [1] [2] [3]
Bushiri runs a Christian non-denominational church known as the Jesus Nation Church based in Malawi. [4] [5] The church's first headquarters was in Chibanja, Mzuzu, where it originated. Later, the headquarters was moved to Lilongwe with branches in other African countries and around the world. [6] [7]
He owns a television channel, a telecommunications company, various farms, properties, sports academies and universities. [8] [9] [10]
Bushiri was born and grew up in Mzuzu, which is in the northern part of Malawi and is a Tumbuka by ethnicity. [10] His mother allegedly gave him the name Shepherd due to the complexities around his birth, acknowledging the Lord as her Shepherd. [11] [12]
In August 2018, he was invited as a guest of honour at South Africa's National Day of Inter-faith prayer held at the Emirates Airline Stadium in Johannesburg, during which he offered prayers of reconciliation and unity. [13] The event was attended by South African leading clergy and South Africa's Vice President David Mabuza. [14]
Bushiri's company, Shepherd Bushiri Investments, is a controversial company that has been implicated in fraud, [15] money laundering, [16] tax evasion and ponzi schemes. [17] South African Police seized properties and bank accounts belonging to the company after discovering it had defrauded pensioners of $6 million USD. [18] [19] [20] On 20 February 2018, Bushiri launched one of his hotel investments property in South Africa which was seized by South African Police after Bushiri skipped bail and fled to his home country. [21] In 2018, Bushiri was given the prestigious award and induction into the CEO Hall of Fame by the African Leadership magazine. [22] [23] [24] [25]
Bushiri has been involved in many charitable works around the world, including work in Malawi, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Botswana, and South Africa. [26] [27] [28] In 2017, he took maize to Lilongwe and spent K85 Million in Malawi Charity. [29]
Bushiri has made false claims of "curing HIV". He countered that he has never performed a miracle in his life because only Jesus can. [30] Nevertheless, due to claims of unproven miracles, Botswana temporarily banned him from entering the country [31] before courts ruled the ECG church is allowed to continue operating in the country. [32] [33] Initially he was free to enter the country at will, [34] but now is required to apply for a visa every time he wants to enter Botswana. [35]
The alleged fees charged to attend some of Bushiri's prestigious public dinners have been applauded. It was speculated that he charged R25000 for a seat at his table at a gala dinner held on 23 December 2017 at the Pretoria Showground, [36] [37] and N$1000 for entry to a dinner held in Windhoek, Namibia in January 2016. [38] Bushiri in several news interviews refuted the published extreme pricing claims for "so-called gala dinners", calling them "fabricated". [39]
It is alleged that in 2010, Bushiri impregnated a teenage Malawian woman, whom he met in 2007 in their hometown, Mzimba. It is further claimed that he bribed her with a cheque for 80000 Malawian kwacha (about R1500) to have an abortion but that the cheque bounced. The woman subsequently gave birth in 2011 to a girl who "is the spitting image of Bushiri and it is widely known in the district that he is the biological father", according to the father of the woman. The woman is now married and the family alleges that they "kept quiet out of fear". The village that the woman and child live in broke the news before the family approached Bushiri. Bushiri claims that the cheque was stolen from him and that, on the day the woman claims he made her pregnant, Bushiri was at a police station dealing with an attempted hijacking. In 2018, the mother again tried to get maintenance via the courts but was unsuccessful. Family members of the girl claim that Bushiri admits to the allegations in private, despite his public denials and have demanded a paternity test. His lawyer, Terrence Baloyi, did not respond to emails, text messages and calls from City Press seeking comment. [40]
In 2019, Darlington Manyawu, a businessman based in Hong Kong, claimed to have sold Bushiri clothing to the value of R450000 but did not receive payment for them. He claimed that the clothing was given to Bushiri's spokesman, Maynard Manyowa on 28 June 2019 and Bushiri had subsequently been seen wearing the clothes at public church gatherings. Ephraim Nyondo, the spokesman for the Enlightened Christian Gathering church, did not dispute the claim but stated that the matter did not concern Bushiri as it was between Manyawu and Manyowa. [41]
The South African Catholic radio station, Radio Veritas, was reprimanded by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) for airing a one-sided programme laced with allegations against Bushiri on 1 December 2019. Bushiri had claimed that the broadcast was "malicious, damaging to his reputation, libelous, contained lies, was unfounded" and did not afford him the right of reply. The BCCSA noted that Veritas Radio had contravened the broadcasting act in not presenting the opposing view from Bushiri. [42] [43]
On 20 February 2020, the former deputy finance minister of Zimbabwe, Terence Mukupe, accused Bushiri of an adulterous affair with Mukupe's musician wife, Rachel, which resulted in the impregnation of Rachel. He claimed to have WhatsApp evidence of his wife and the preacher arranging to meet for "sex romps in Malawi, Pretoria and Rustenburg". He also claimed that Bushiri had taken R100000 (approx $7500) from him to finance his church, Enlightened Christian Gathering. [44]
Bushiri responded to the allegations, saying that he had not left South Africa in the past 13 months and therefore could not have met with Rachel Mukupe. He also claimed that he had not used WhatsApp or iMessage for the past 3 years and hence could not have sent her the messages Terence Mukupe claimed to have found. Bushiri also said that he had engaged his lawyers in Zimbabwe to "urgently seek legal recours". [45] [46] [47]
Mukupe's response to Bushiri was that Bushiri had not used his own phone to contact Rachel and that Mukupe had paid for the tickets for Bushiri to travel. [44] [45] According to reports, "Mukupe's public spat with Bushiri has divided opinion among ZANU–PF members over his psychological fitness to head the ZanuPF youth league." [48]
On 3 March, Rachel (known as Rachel J) responded to the allegations between Bushiri and Mukupe. In her statement, released via her family, it was stated that:
On 4 March, Rachel J's family demanded a paternity test be performed on the child to prove that he was not Bushiri's. [50]
On 6 March, Rachel gave birth to a daughter she referred to as "Najah, Deborah, Makomborero". [51] No paternity tests had been conducted at that point.
On March 21, 2021, South African Police charged Shepherd Bushiri with 16 counts of rape relating to 8 different victims. [52] At the time the police had already issued 3 warrants of arrests relating to three separate charges of rape against Bushiri [53] The police claimed that Bushiri targeted women and girls at his church. [54] According to police documents, the girls, including some as young as 15 and who were sisters were kept in hotel rooms and brutally raped for hours before being given between $500 and $700 and being asked to leave. [55] Police later announced they were investigating Bushiri's associates whom they accused of intimidating victims, and reported that several victims had come forward between 2016 and 2018 and accused Bushiri of rape before recanting their testimonies after being intimidated or paid off. [56] In December 2021, police arrested Brigadier Rosey Resondt’s husband, Clifford Cornelius Resondt, who was Bushiri’s head of security and charged them with corruption and defeating the ends of justice after Bushiri sent them R500,000 which was given to a rape victim who later recanted her allegations. [57]
On 24 October 2020, South African Police revealed that Shepherd Bushiri's residency in the country may have been irregular after noticing that his South African issued identity card was issued in 1996 but Bushiri and his wife had first travelled to South Africa in 2010 on tourist visas. [58] The police later announced that Bushiri had paid for a fraudulent residency permit and deemed him an illegal immigrant. [59] After the announcement, 5 officials were suspended for having issued Bushiri fraudulent identity documents. [60]
On 1 February 2019, Bushiri was arrested together with his wife by South Africa's Directorate for Priority Investigations (HAWKS) for fraud and money laundering. [61] The Hawks said the case against the couple was linked to alleged offences of fraud and money laundering, as well as the contravention of South Africa's Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA), which had been committed from 2015. The contravention of the Act was in relation to Exchange Control Regulations relating to foreign currency of $1147200.
On 28 August 2019, Bushiri's court case was postponed until 29 November 2019 to allow his legal team, including Terrence Baloyi and Barry Roux, [62] to make representations to the National Prosecuting Authority. [63] The case was subsequently postponed to 27 July 2020 for trial, [64] at which time it was postponed to October 2020. [65]
In November 2019, application was made by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for the forfeiture of a 1984 Gulfstream aircraft owned by Bushiri and hangared at Lanseria airport, north of Johannesburg. The NPA claimed that the aircraft had been procured with funds illegally obtained. Bushiri claimed that it was legitimately acquired in 2016 for $1250000 (R17000000). The application for forfeiture was not ready to go ahead and was removed from the court roll. [66]
Bushiri and his wife were each granted R100000 (approx $7500) bail after appearing in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria on 6 February 2019. Among the bail conditions were that the couple remain in Gauteng and their travel documents remain with the state. If they needed to travel, they would need to get written permission from investigating officers. Bushiri and wife were also not allowed to make contact with any of the witnesses. [67]
On 20 October 2020, prior to their court appearance on 30 October 2020, the Bushiris were arrested on charges which were not included in the previous cases. Conflicting reports implicated various combinations of Landiwe Sindani, Landiwe Ntokwana, Willah Mudolo and Zethu Mudolo in the fraud case as co-accused with the Bushiris. [68] [69] [70] The Bushiris are also accused of being illegally in South Africa and of having contravened the immigration regulations on several occasions since at least 2015. [69] Their bail application was set for 30 October. [71] The Bushiris had not been released from prison as they were considered a flight risk as evidenced by the allegations that they had illegally exported a Bentley and a Maserati to Malawi earlier in 2020. [72]
The trial date for the fraud case was set for May 2021. [73]
On 14 November 2020, reports surfaced that Bushiri and his wife had fled back to Malawi, breaking bail conditions due to fears for their safety. [74] On November 20, Bushiri and his wife, who were arrested in their native country on November 18, [75] were released from a Malawi prison after their arrest was deemed unprocedural. [76]
The following week, Bushiri and his wife were arrested again and arraigned before the court's where Malawi prosecutors sought to extradite them to South Africa. They were released on bail and their extradition case is ongoing. [77] In February 2022 the high court refused to throw out Bushiri's challenge of his extradition and instead sent the case to the Magistrate's court for ruling. [78]
Bushiri was born to a Malawian father and a Zambian mother. [79] He is married to Mary Bushiri. [80] They have two daughters together. [80] [81] On 29 March 2021, Bushiri announced the passing away of his first daughter Israella in Kenya after a lengthy respiratory illness. [82] [83]