Prophet Shepherd Bushiri failed to come on top in the first round against his former bedfellow Mboro.
The Enlightened Christian Gathering commonly known as Major 1 sued Prophet Paseka Motsoeneng popularly known as Prophet Mboro following allegations by Felicia Sibeko, a South African woman who claimed to have been scammed by Bushiri.
Bushiri applied for an urgent interim interdict to gag Sibeko from making any allegations against the Malawian prophet who is plying his trade in South Africa. He also wanted her to delete on social media all the allegations she forged against the prophet.
Sibeko had claimed to have invested about K7.4 million (R150 thousand) in a scheme run by Bushiri because he had promised that her investment would generate close to K49 million (R1 million) in the space of six months.
But she said Bushiri run away with her money without giving her a single coin.
“I was scammed by Shepherd Bushiri after investing the last money we had secured for us and the future of our children, selling our business because he assured us that we are definitely going to have great returns on our investment” said Sibeko.
“We were assured that our lives will change. However, we are now living in poverty. We are in debts. My child can’t go to varsity because we don’t even have a cent to buy my child clothes or food, not to mention school fees. This so called man of God, Major 1 ruined our lives. We only wanted a better life for ourselves, we trusted him”, said Sibeko in a statement.
But it emerged in court that Bushiri paid Sibeko her money back, as well as R5 000 extra, prompting Bushiri’s lawyer to question why she continued to call the ECG prophet a liar.
Bushiri also sued Mboro of Incredible Happenings Ministries and president of the Church Mandate Turn Around Movement over allegations that he partnered with Sibeko to badmouth the Malawian prophet.
Major 1 filled the lawsuit soon after accusing Mboro of “making soulish prayers, and directing all sorts of bad remarks and name-calling, against me”.
He is seeking about K50 million (R1m) from Mboro and Sibeko in damages for defamation as he hopes to come on top.
Mboro, who alleged that his and Sibeko’s social media accounts and phones were hacked by Bushiri, promised to fight the lawsuit.
Major 1 and Mboro are ex-bedfellows. The two had previously ironed out their differences that were instigated by media reports that Bushiri paid a designer to show Mboro in heaven allegedly to tarnish Mboro’s name and credibility.
Bushiri confirmed through his spokesperson that the fake reports of Mboro being in heaven were indeed created by a guy who used to work in the ECG media team.
“The fake heaven story even trended overseas. Besides the reports of ‘I went to heaven and came back’, there were also reports I asked for R100 000 for Covid-19 relief and that I visited hell and killed satan” said Mboro who confronted Bushiri in 2016 about the issue.
“He told me the person behind the fake accounts and fake news had been fired” said Mboro.
He says his name continues to get tarnished because of the fake reports which he says were part of “a scheme aimed at tarnishing my name”.
Mboro said the stories resurfaced in 2018, tarnishing his name again.
“I believe there are more people involved in this. I’d like to meet all the people implicated, as well as Prophet Bushiri, so we can find a solution. I’m tired of people tarnishing my image” Mboro had been quoted by the Daily Sun.
Tired of being called names, Bushiri applied for a gag order against Mboro.
But in this week’s ruling, Bushiri failed to come on top as the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria struck the lawsuit on technical grounds.
The court said issuing the order would presuppose findings on the defamation claims, which it could not do.
The court also ordered Bushiri to foot the legal bill for this round.
Now, Bushiri enters the second round with Mboro.
