Prophet Shepherd Bushiri will soon be vindicated that the South African security agency, the Hawks, was bent on victimizing him through fabricated charges as the country’s court has threatened the case will be struck from the roll.
In a ruling on Tuesday when Bushiri’s co-accused appeared before the court, in a fraud and money laundering case, the Pretoria Magistrate Court ordered the State to finalise investigations by the time the matter returns to court in January 2023.
The State requested that the 2020 case be postponed once more, and the court responded angrily with its order.
Bushiri’s co-accused, Willah Mudolo, his wife, Zethu, Landiwe Ntlokwana, Nomalarvasagie Reddy and Sateesh Isseri, appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, where the State asked for a postponement.
Bushiri and his wife, Mary, were not present. They had fled to Malawi after being granted bail in November 2020.
They are currently facing an extradition hearing to have them brought back to South Africa.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said the court granted the State a last postponement for further investigations until 25 January next year.
But the court warned that, if investigations had not been completed by then, the matter would be struck from the roll.
In an interview, Bushiri’s spokesperson Ephraim Nyondo, said the court’s decision only vindicates and testifies the victimisation Bushiri was suffering in South Africa, the reason he returned home.
Bushiri, his wife and the co-accused were arrested in October 2020 on alleged fraud accusations and the State, by then, submitted that they had overwhelming evidence stemming from investigations that started in 2018.
In November last year, Mudolo and his wife asked the court to hold an inquiry as to why proceedings were being delayed.
However, following submissions from the State, the court found there had been no unreasonable delay in the case.
Bushiri and his co-accused face charges of fraud, theft and money laundering in relation to an alleged scam in which investors were allegedly defrauded out of R102 million.
City Press previously reported that Bushiri allegedly fleeced scores of his followers out of millions of rands through a failed “commodity investment opportunity”.
It is alleged that Bushiri promised investors a 50% return within 30 banking days of placing investments of between R100 000 and R1 million.
