FILE: Prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary appears at Pretoria Magistrate's Court on November 04, 2020 in Pretoria, South Africa. Picture: Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu
The High Court in Malawi has ruled in favour of Enlightened Christian Gathering church leader Shepherd Bushiri.
The high court on Monday ruled that South African witnesses in the extradition case against him and his wife Mary must travel to Malawi to give evidence, overturning last year’s ruling that allowed witnesses to give evidence virtually before a South African court.
Bushiri and his wife had argued that the witnesses had to be physically in court in Malawi to testify in the extradition case.
Malawi received the formal extradition request for the Enlightened Christian Gathering church leader and his wife from the South African government on 5 December 2021.
The extradition request was submitted in terms of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol.
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According to Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola, the Malawi’s Extradition Act clearly demonstrates in the First Schedule to that Act that South Africa was a designated country for purposes of extradition, and this was the reason why the Lilongwe Magistrate’s Court ruled in favour of the prosecution.
The Bushiris are wanted in connection with a fraud and money laundering case to the alleged tune of R102 million.
The couple fled to Malawi in November 2020, just a few days after they were granted bail of R200,000 each – under strict conditions – in the Pretoria Central Magistrate’s Court.
On Monday, Bushiri celebrated the news with his 4.4 million followers on Facebook, calling it a “fair ruling”.
“A milestone victory for us in our case,” said Bushiri.
“When we came to Malawi, we spoke about how unfairly we were being treated in South Africa. We had opened cases of extortion against some of the investigators who arrested us a year before the same accused officers arrested us.
“We also survived assassination attempts after we opened cases against some individuals in the Republic of South Africa and they have records of these cases in the Police and Judicial systems which we believe to be vital in our case.
“We welcome this fair ruling and we look forward to meeting them in court where we will exercise our right to cross examine them for a fair ruling. Thank you everyone for your continued support.”
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