Fugitive: Malawian millionaire preacher Shepherd Bushiri waves at sympathisers as he leaves the Lilongwe magistrate’s court on 19 November 2020 after skipping bail in South Africa. File photo: Amos Gumulira/Getty Images
The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) apparent fears of being seen to be “harassing” Shepherd Bushiri allegedly resulted in failure to arrest the self-proclaimed prophet on rape accusations nine days before he fled the country while facing separate R102 million fraud charges, internal documents show.
Notes from a 5 November 2020 meeting involving representatives from the NPA and the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation (the Hawks) show that prosecutors Adina van Deventer and Alicia Roos said they would not pursue Bushiri for the alleged rape of girls because it “will look as if we are harassing him”.
Lieutenant Colonel Phumla Mrwebi, the lead investigator in the rape and human trafficking leg of the Hawks’ investigations into Bushiri, including into alleged multimillon-rand fraud and money laundering crimes, represented the unit at the November 2020 meeting.
Mrwebi declined to comment when contacted this week and the NPA has not responded to the latest questions. But the NPA had previously stated that it stood by the decision of the two prosecutors.
This latest information follows the Mail & Guardian’s report in February that NPA head Shamila Batohi had protected Van Deventer and Roos after a July 2020 report said that the state advocates had “delayed justice” by not prosecuting Bushiri for rape.
The report, which was compiled by the DPCI judge Frans Kgomo, detailed how Van Deventer and Roos stalled in issuing warrants of arrest for Bushiri, including “blocking” Mrwebi from arresting him, by asking questions to which she had already given them the answers. The DPCI judge is the ombud office for all Hawks-related matters.
Van Deventer and Roos are still employed by the NPA.
The Hawks began its investigations in October 2015, completing the rape and human trafficking leg in about February 2019 after collating 25 witness statements showing how Bushiri allegedly preyed on underage girls attending his Enlightened Christian Gathering church.
The statements included those from siblings who were each allegedly raped by Bushiri at the Sheraton Hotel in Tshwane, Gauteng, in June 2018.
On 4 November 2020, Bushiri and his wife Mary were released on R200 000 bail each in the Pretoria magistrate’s court after appearing on charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to R102 million.
Notes sourced during the M&G’s investigation show that the next day, the Hawks, represented by Mrwebi, met the NPA to agitate for warrants to be issued for Bushiri to be rearrested on rape and human trafficking charges.
Mrwebi, according to the information, was told that not only was the NPA wary of “harassing” Bushiri, but that the prosecutors would drop the fraud charges against him — retaining only the money laundering counts — when the self-proclaimed prophet returned to court on 31 May 2021.
(John McCann/M&G)
“The other charges are falling away such as fraud, defeating the ends of justice and contravention of the Immigration Act,” read the notes. “Other victims who took money after opening a rape case might not be included [when the rape and trafficking] court case begins.”
Bushiri allegedly paid off some of the girls who accused him of rape. He fled the country on 14 November 2020 to his home country of Malawi, nine days after the Hawks had pressed the NPA to issue warrants.
On 6 November 2020, before the fugitive escaped, the father of the siblings allegedly raped by Bushiri sent a cry for help to Justice and Correctional Service Minister Ronald Lamola, asking him to intervene in getting justice for his daughters.
The email was also sent to Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development John Jeffery.
The father’s name is withheld to protect the identity of his daughters, who are now in their early twenties.
In the email the father also complained about the conduct of Van Deventer and Roos, saying the two prosecutors had done everything “to deny many victims justice” and begging the ministers to remove the state advocates from the case.
“As South Africa needs to protect young girls and women, I decided to bring these rape cases to your attention so that justice can be done for all these victims. By reaching you, we trust that justice will be done because you are the minister of justice and correctional services and deputy minister for justice and constitutional development,” wrote the father.
“We are afraid that advocate [Roos] and [advocate] Van Deventer [will] destroy all these dockets or just that these dockets disappear. Please intervene in this matter so that justice can be done for many victims.”
Justice department spokesperson Chrispin Phiri acknowledged questions sent to him this week, and said he would respond. He had not done so at the time of going to print.
On Thursday, however, the justice department released an update on its extradition attempts to try to bring Bushiri back to South Africa.
The department said Malawi’s high court had ordered the South African officials to attend the extradition hearings in that country, and that South Africa’s justice department was “engaged with the various role players to facilitate the logistics required”.
The father of the two alleged rape victims declined to comment this week. But his contention that the NPA was denying justice to his daughters and other victims is supported by Kgomo’s July 2020 report, which found that the father had “a genuine cause of complaint” about delayed justice after “two years [had] elapsed since the rape cases were reported [in June 2018]”.
In his report, Kgomo detailed a conversation he had with Mrwebi, who had asked the Hawks judge what impediments stood in the way of the NPA prosecuting Bushiri for the alleged rape, while Bushiri also faced fraud charges.
(John McCann/M&G)
“Lieutenant Colonel Mrwebi was concerned that the alleged rape victims were young or children … whose memories are fading and that the delay [in prosecution] traumatises them psychologically,” reads the judge’s report.
Kgomo added that he “appreciated” Mrwebi’s concerns, writing that the Hawks officer’s pleas had “merit”.
The judge called Van Deventer and Roos’s conduct in the Bushiri investigation “deeply troubling”, saying he had given the report to NPA head Shamila Batohi “to take cognisance of the involvement of advocate Adina van Deventer [and Roos] in this complaint”.
In a statement to the M&G after the publication of the February article, NPA chief communications director Bulelwa Makeke said the authority “rejected” claims that it protected Bushiri, saying it had ensured that cases involving him were handled “according to the highest prosecutorial standards”.
Makeke added that the NPA was “satisfied” with the decisions taken by Van Deventer and Roos not to issue warrants of arrest for Bushiri, because prosecutors were “best placed to make an assessment on whether [or] when a matter is ripe for enrolment”.
On Kgomo’s findings against the prosecutors, Makeke said the judge had not submitted his report to the NPA, which would have triggered an investigation into Van Deventer and Roos if he had done so.
“As such, neither the prosecutors against whom the negative findings were made, nor the NPA leadership, were given an opportunity to respond to the allegations before a finding could be made and for immediate and appropriate action to be instituted.”