State Avoids Having R102m Fraud Case Against Prophet Shepherd Bushiri, Co-accused Struck Off Roll

Pretoria – The State has averted having the R102 million fraud case against self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his co-accused struck off the court roll by finally completing its investigations.

During the last court appearance in October, where Bushiri’s co-accused Willah Mudolo, his wife, Zethu Mudolo, Landiwe Ntlokwana, Nomalarvasagie Reddy and Sateesh Isseri, appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court, a last postponement of the matter was granted by the court.

However, in doing so it warned should investigations not be complete when the matter returned to court in January 2023, the matter would be struck from the roll.

During today’s appearance another accused, Stephanie Olivier, 53, was finally added to the matter to appear alongside the other co-accused after she was arrested in November.

The State informed the court it had completed investigations surrounding the fraud case involving Bushiri who fled to his birth country of Malawi, with his wife after they were granted bail for R200 000 each by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.

During the proceedings, indictments were served on all the accused in the matter.

After this, the State informed the court the matter was ready to be transferred to the high court in Pretoria to arrange for a date to be allocated.

The State further said the deputy of the court roll had been informed of this and a meeting had been requested to thrash out issues around the date and probability of the length of the trial.

Attempts to have the media barred from broadcasting proceedings and taking pictures were also addressed as the legal counsels for the accused informed the court they had not been informed of their presence.

The court stated it would be unable to rule on the matter until a higher court had made the decision and that in the interim no pictures of the accused be taken.

The State did however highlight tan application had been made by the media at the start of the case with presiding magistrate Thandi Theledi granting permission for audio and video, on the condition the prosecuting team and investigators not be identified.

The matter will return to the high court on April 20.