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Initially, Lazarus Chakwera’s visit to South Africa, the regional superpower, was going very well. Malawi’s newly elected president had a good meeting with his counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, in Pretoria last Friday, and signed a major economic cooperation agreement.
Around 1 p.m., Chakwera returned to Sefako Makgatho’s presidential guesthouse to rest before his flight home in a Bombardier Q400 chartered by Malawi Airlines.
the Mail and tutor He had accompanied Chakwera on his flight to South Africa and was at Waterkloof Air Force Base with the Malawian advance delegation when things started to go wrong.
Chakwera’s excitement, and that of his entourage, turned first to anxiety and then to outrage when they learned that the advance delegation had been accosted by police officers at the airport and denied access to the plane.
Police were searching for the controversial self-proclaimed “prophet” Shepherd Bushiri, reputed to be one of the richest religious figures in Africa. Bushiri and his wife were charged in South Africa with fraud, but were released on bail of 200,000 rand. They had disappeared that morning.
Bushiri is one of Malawi’s most famous sons, and the police thought that the President of Malawi might be helping to smuggle him out. They were willing to break diplomatic protocol to check if Bushiri was on the plane.
It turned out that the police were wrong. At that time, the Bushiris were already in Lilongwe; later, they would announce their escape to the world. “Our arrival in Malawi … is a tactical withdrawal by the Republic of South Africa, whose sole objective is to preserve our lives,” Bushiri said in a statement. “We have to be alive to testify.”
After a delay of almost 10 hours, Chakwera and his team were finally allowed to fly back to Lilongwe. Chakwera was furious. His diplomatic triumph had turned into a major diplomatic incident; and, once again, he found himself at odds with Bushiri, despite their shared background in Malawi’s evangelical community.
Shepherd Huxley Bushiri was born on February 20, 1983 in the Rumphi district of northern Malawi. Growing up, he was an average student, but he was always driven by his Christian faith.
One of his former teachers at Moyale Barracks Community Day High School said Bushiri failed his high school exam on the first try. “I was too interested in SCOM [Students Christian Organisation of Malawi] activities, ”the teacher recalled. “He was staying with his brother Misheck and was a member of the CCAP [Church of Central Africa Presbyterian] Church. How he became a prophet is a mystery. “
A childhood friend, who asked not to be named, said he remembers Bushiri as reserved, creative and prone to prayer.
“Of course, Bushiri was always a man of prayer, so he can leave you concentrating on books and go out to make prayer arrangements. You could tell that he was very fond of religious things. As for the behavior, I don’t think I remember him fighting with anyone, other than friends provoking him. However, he could not be fully trusted because he seemed very reserved, ”said the friend.
Bushiri began his ministry in Mzuzu, the country’s third-largest city, and made a name for himself among college students for his spiritual advice on love and relationships. Even then, however, he appeared to attract scandal and was accused of making a woman in his congregation pregnant. These accusations were later dismissed by a court.
From these beginnings, Bushiri built one of the largest, most influential, and most lucrative ministries in Africa: the Encounter of Enlightened Christians. This growth was fueled by the “miracles” he claimed to perform: curing people of HIV, making the blind see, lifting the impoverished and, on at least one occasion, walking on air.
At the same time, he was amassing enormous wealth, investing parishioners’ tithes in everything from hospitality and real estate to transportation and mining. Bushiri’s net worth is believed to exceed one billion rand and, unlike the president of Malawi, he has his own private jet.
But the controversy was never far behind. Bushiri made headlines in 2017 after the Botswana government imposed visa restrictions on him because the local branch of his church had not submitted audit accounts. He has been repeatedly implicated in adultery, and in 2019 was accused by two parishioners of rape (allegations he strongly denies).
Question marks also surrounded how he was able to grow his fortune so quickly. One notable critic is the son of Lazarus Chakwera. In 2017, Nick Chakwera harshly criticized Bushiri on social media for exploiting his congregation for profit.
Both Chakweras are important figures in the Malawian evangelical church movement, and Bushiri did not welcome the reprimand. “My warning will [Lazarus] Chakwera because he hoped that he, as a man of God and also as a politician, would realize that his son had made a mistake, ”Bushiri said at the time. “You should tell your son to leave me alone.”
It was in South Africa that Bushiri’s controversial business activities seem to have finally caught up with him. After a years-long investigation, the Hawks, the Priority Crimes Investigation Directorate, arrested Bushiri and his wife Mary last month. They were charged with fraud and money laundering worth more than 100 million rand.
In a statement, one of Bushiri’s alleged victims, Felicia Sibeko, said she had invested R130,000 in Bushiri’s gold, currency and commodities scheme. “I got the money from the sale of my taxi, which used to put food on the table for my family. Since the investment, my life has been ruined. He has made me and many other promises with great returns, something that did not happen, “he said. “Instead, I received nothing but lies and promises day after day with the last excuse from him being that the money was frozen. I invested to improve my life and that of my family. Instead, I have become the laughingstock of my community. When people see me, they laugh and say that I believed and prayed with Papa Bushiri and he took my money. “
The bond for the couple was 200,000 rand each. Apparently, it should have been even higher. Undeterred by losing R400,000 between them, Shepherd and Mary Bushiri fled the country last Friday. It is not yet clear how exactly they were able to cross South Africa’s borders, although we can rule out Chakwera’s plane.
But if Bushiri expected a warm reception at home, he may have miscalculated. On Monday, the Malawi police issued an arrest warrant for Bushiri and his wife. On Tuesday, they raided their home, but they were not found. On Wednesday, running out of options, the Bushiri surrendered. They will oppose South Africa’s early extradition request, although they have not yet stated on what grounds they intend to do so.
“We don’t know which treaty they will use. For now, it will be preventive to cite the reasons [on which] We will challenge extradition, but we will definitely challenge it, ”said his lawyer, Wapona Kita.
This means that the case could drag on for some time, if the example of another high-profile extradition saga is taken into consideration. It took six years of protracted legal battles before Malawi could extradite Misozi Chanthunya from South Africa; the case reached the Supreme Court of Appeals. In the end, however, justice was served and Chanthunya was convicted of murder.
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