South Africa law expert says Bushiris extradition could be uphill battle: ‘Prophet may have last laugh after Malawi return’
South Africa’s immigration and extradition expert Gary Eisenberg has said that Prophet Shepherd Bushiri is a very clever and well-informed man and Nthakoana Ngatane a senior political reporter for Eyewitness News has published an opinion article which she states that South Africa may get a taste of its own medicine in its bid to extradite the preacher and his wife, Mary, from Malawi if cases of other countries waiting for Pretoria to hand over accused persons and fugitives is anything to go by.
Bushiri and his wife Mary were out on bail after being arrested for their alleged involvement in fraud and money laundering worth over R100 million.
The Pretoria Magistrates Court granted the Bushiris bail, convinced that they were not a flight risk. But the court has since revoked the bail and issued an arrest warrant after it emerged that they are now in Malawi.
The South African government has now started a process to extradite them from Malawi.
“What applies here is the SADC Protocol on Extradition and if you look at it closely, you’ll find Article 4 which will prevent the Malawian government from extraditing Bushiri,” Eisenberg said while speaking to CapeTalk’s Refilwe Moloto on Monday morning.
The immigration expert said this was because Bushiri may never receive a guarantee of an impartial trial in South Africa.
“When you listen to his demands, Bushiri is invoking article 4 of the SADC Protocol and it’s totally in his rights to do so. So, he may have the last laugh,” Eisenberg added.
In a published article, journalist Ngatane stated that the extradition could be an uphill battle.
“Over the past decade alone accused persons and fugitives wanted by other SADC countries remained in South Africa, and in some cases, the processes had taken more than 10 years to conclude,” she wrote.
She concluded: “ So, while South Africa could begin the process to extradite the Bushiris and cite the SADC protocol, it could be years before any conclusion is reached.”
Qatar-based Malawian trained lawyer Timothy Nundwe also commented on his Facebook page: “The Malawian cashgate crook (Limumba Karim) was partying in RSA after skipping bail. Some of you were quiet. Don’t scream too much [on] Bushiri.”
Karim died last week with Zimbabwean socialite Ginimbi in a fatal accident in Harare.
Weighing in on the matter, Malawian legislator Ackson Kalaile Banda also took to social media to state that war crimes judges ruled that South Africa flouted its duties to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in June 2015 by failing to arrest visiting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who went to attend African Union summit despite having two international arrest warrants .
“So South Africa flouted the same rules they are signatory, and they want to push Malawi to comply? And they expect us to extradite our own son? No ways Major 1 is going nowhere,” wrote the member of parliament for People’s Party (PP) led by former president Joyce Banda.
Bushiri has said that he had returned to Malawi because they believed that their lives were in danger in South Africa.
He also claimed they would not receive fair trial.
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Reply to Nanyati
Malawians lets love one another, the fact that you don’t like him,or you see him as a force prophet or whatever it does not give you the right to judge him judgement is for the Lord himself.He said he esacped for his life are you are busy castigated him instead of feeling sorry for your fellow malawians.South A friacans are bad people they don’t like seeing a foreiners getting rich in their country while while they are poor they become bitter and jelousy.Bushiri did not deserve the treatment he was receiving in SA and he has back home instead of… Read more »
I can see you have too many idiots over there. Instead of protecting your own now that he is on your soil you want him to be handed over to his pursuers. Bushiri did not force anyone to part with his / her money. These are faith matters and he still has a lot of support from other members of his church. Please don’t show your idiocy to other Africans. Do you think Nigeria would have extradited their own. Idiots.
We want our money nothing else our parents worked hard for money
U r talking nonsense wena dts our money that bustard has, he told our parents that the money will double in 3 months since 2017 to date none of investors received single cent from that bustard we only want our money nothing else
A whole pastor running from his sheep ha ha ha this conman. Nguluwe inalira nsampha utakhiya ma batile 😂😂
Another Malawian idiot. Support your citizen now that he is on Malawian soil.
Why you cannot appreciate the prophet of the Utmost High God is simply because you are still in darkness. The Holy Bible is full of cases where prophets were persecuted. They had to run away with their dear lives. This is not new.
I am shocked that some Malawians have forgotten that a Malawian national was burnt alive in SA’s afrophobia madness in 2008. Pathetic!!
Burnt or not we want our money that bustard has our money
This guy is not an immigration law expert dont be fooled. He is a child of papa fugitive. In the interview he says this is a diplomatic issue when its a judicial issue. The problem of watching diplomatic channel rubbish
Bushiri has the right to care for his life especially that he is mentioning death threats from tje very same people who claim he commited crimes yet they cant charge him. South Africans are murderers so they cant be trusted. If anyone is agaist what Major 1 did then its their own problem. S.A doesn’t have respect to sadc rules and they want Malawi to abide by they same rule they (S.A) don’t give a damn thing about.. A crap of lawless country
No death threats for that bustard who can kill man who is surrounded by army, tell him we want our money SADC or no SADC we want our money nothing else those SADC issues should be discussed while we hv our money in our banks
Malawi is a country like any other country in the world so it has rules and regulations over Malawians. So there is no way that other country in the world should over power Malawi. The case is there but Malawi has rights to defend Bushiri as a citizen of Malawi and as a human being has the right to say I don’t want this.
I agree with Paul
100%. Don’t let any country intimidate Malawi because of its small economy.
Stop calling people idiots for voicing their opinions. It’s a free space don’t bully people
We want our money not intimidating any 1,
Whether malawi laws or not when he collected our money promising us double profits in 3 months he never told us about malawi laws
Listening to him preaching is not the same as making him rich as the South Africans did. Have u seen a really rich preacher in Malawi?Preaching to the poor is not a good business model for Bushiri. He needs dumb suckers but rich ones- nothing like that in Malawi contributing 1000 kwacha each! Shaaaa! Especially in the North where poverty is intense
But he has done too much charity work to his own Malawians, food programs to help the poor in Malaw, but they have forgotten so soon. It’s a shame. By the way I am a South African. Prophet Bushiri is also eager to clear his name in a competent court and safe environment. Malawians protect your one of your own. Infact you are blessed to have a rare gem in Malawi, a calibre of Prophet Shepherd Bushiri comes once in a lifetime.
Do charity with our money bloody bustard
You are using wrong precedence. Bushiri should be extradited because Malawians are going to suffer because of one stupid person who went to south africa to commit crimes..let us be fair here ..if chakwera wants to clear his name he should allow the process to proceed with urgency..I heard Kampondeni say that Chakwera has no influence over the police. Remember he is commander in chief of the police and army and therefore you can not claim that he is not involved with issues concerning the police.
If he was innocent he would have stayed put and let justice prevail.. Mulungu amamenya nkhondo modabwitsa…koma since it’s ‘god of major1’ I guess alibe kuthekera komwe timakudziwa Kwa God of Abraham…go deeper
fair trial is what is complaining. how can u just keep on arresting someone over the year without commencing any trial. this is unfair and pple who have resources like him have the opportunity to argue. most pple suffer because of lack of resources to defend thier rights.
i have haeard than even here in Malawi somepple are roating injail without trial for years due to lack of resources to argue in court.
Chathunya must be musing over …… something .. . .. i am musing….