Lilongwe – The extradition matter of Prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary hit another snag on Monday morning when the only South African witness, Sibongile Mnzinyathi, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for Gauteng Province, failed to appear in a Malawi court.
The Chief Resident Magistrate Court in Lilongwe refused to postpone the matter to next year and instead rescheduled the appearance to 4 pm Monday.
Mnzinyathi had been scheduled to come to court in the morning to testify in an extradition case involving prophet Bushiri and his wife, Mary.
The State informed the court that the witness was not available because he supposedly missed his connecting flight in Kenya and requested the court to adjourn the matter to March next year.
But defence lawyer Wapona Kita objected to the adjournment saying the witness was scheduled to arrive in the country today.
“We are being told he is arriving at 14:15 today,” said Kita, adding: “So we are asking the court to adjourn the matter to 4 pm because if he is on his way to Malawi for the case then he should be available to attend court at 4 pm and must explain himself why the matter must be adjourned considering that the court gave the state 60 days to put their house in order.”
Commenting on the matter, Prophet Bushiri who skipped bail in South Africa, where he and his wife are wanted for fraud involving more than R100 million, posted his response on Facebook.
“As you all know, we appeared at the Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate Court this morning, where we were expecting the South African government through its witness to present its extradition request against us,” Prophet Bushiri said.
Prophet Bushiri added: “To our dismay, once again, the witness failed to appear before the court and no one from their team made it to the hearing.
“Their reason was that the witness had flight complications in Nairobi, Kenya en-route to Lilongwe, Malawi.
“Be reminded that one of our legal counsels also comes from South Africa and she has been in Malawi since Friday to prepare for the case.
“She was in the chambers by 8:30 CAT because we understand the importance of this case.”
Prophet Bushiri said his lawyer objected to an adjournment of the hearing to March 2024.
He said the SA authorities were given 60 days to prepare for the hearing of the matter at hand.
“As you all remember, on October 10th, 2023, the court slapped the South African government with a fine of K560 000 as costs of proceedings for delaying the case,” said Bushiri.
“They are delaying it again. Let’s hope this evening, all goes well.
Chief Resident Magistrate has adjourned to 4 O’clock this afternoon.
“We urge you to continue being in prayer and we appreciate your inexorable support.”
Eventually, the Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court relented to requests for a postponement.
The state’s request for the hearing of the extradition case to be adjourned to March next year was granted.
