South African witness Sibongile Mzinyathi who is also Director of Public Prosecution for Gauteng Province, has told the court in Lilongwe today that Prophet Shepherd Bushiri and wife Mary did not benefit from the R106 million which the two were accused of stealing from church members in South Africa.
Today, Wapona Kita who is lawyer for the Bushiris continued cross-examining Mzinyathi.
Mzinyathi told that court that in 2023, the South African government hired KPMG to audit the accounts and found no trace of money going to the accounts of either Bushiri or Mary, his wife.
Bushiri and his wife, who escaped South Africa in 2020 are wanted in the Rainbow Nation to face 13 offences including forgery, rape and stealing, money laundering, racketeering, failing to comply with bail conditions, failing to comply with requirements of Immigration Act and contravening Immigration Act.
However, Kita noted in court today that under the laws of Malawi, out of the charges against the Bushiris, only three charges namely; forgery, rape and stealing are extraditable.
He posited that the evidence provided for the cases does not satisfy the requirements to have the Bushiris extradited.
Meanwhile, Bushiri who leads the Enlightened Christian Gathering, in a video posted on Facebook, has welcomed the proceedings in court, saying he and his wife were being wrongly accused of stealing money from South Africans.
According to Bushiri, a company called Rising Estate Limited was the one that took R106 million from his church’s members and the Bushiris took their own R90 million and paid the victims with the hope of recovering their money from Rising.
“What is happening in court is the hand of God working. At the end of this case, the world will know there is God in heaven who vindicates his children,” said Bushiri.
