Former Hawks head Lt-Gen Godfrey Lebeya has dismissed explosive allegations by self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri who accused senior SAPS and Hawks officials of attempting to extort money from him in exchange for making his criminal cases disappear.
In an exclusive interview with eNCA in the Malawi capital Lilongwe, Bushiri claimed that top police officials tried to solicit bribes. He alleged that the former Hawks spokesperson Paul Ramaloko once summoned him to a farm and demanded R2m to secure a meeting with Lebeya.
In a separate interview with eNCA, however, Lebeya called the claims lies and fabrication.
“I have never met this prophet Bushiri nor have I ever talked to him. I never invited anybody to come and discuss with me to make a case go away. The cases will never go away,” he said.
He said Bushiri had repeatedly changed his story over the years.
“He has been changing his story. I have listened to him. The story that he is putting forward today, alleging that I have summoned him to my farm and house. He has previously said that it was General Sibiya. He has now changed to say that it is Lebeya,” said the former Hawks boss.
Lebeya questioned the timeline Bushiri presented, saying he was not in the police service at the time the alleged extortion began.
“I hear that he says that these things started happening from 2016, until 2019. I was outside the police at the time when he says these things started happening. In fact, it is during this period that I came into the Hawks in 2018 that I found that part of the more than 20,000 cases that were under investigation included this one of Prophet Bushiri. The team that was investigating this is highly experienced.”
Responding to claims that Ramaloko arranged a farm meeting and offered to make the case “go away,” Lebeya dismissed it as fantasy.
“He’s lying. Maybe a security guard or whoever may have deceived him. It is not the first time that you hear people saying that they are negotiating with the head and the like. Part of those you shall have known before I leave the office, who was arrested?” said Lebeya.
Lebeya said he sent Ramaloko a message prior to the broadcast to alert him about the allegations.
“I have not spoken to him. I sent him a message before the broadcast when I was informed that there would be a broadcast in the evening, but I have not spoken to him. I did not ask him,” he said.
Bushiri and his wife, Mary, were arrested in South Africa in November 2020 on charges of fraud and money laundering.
They were also charged with rape, violating bail conditions, and contraventions of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, the Banking Act, the Civil Aviation Act and the Immigration Act.
The couple were out on R200,000 bail each when they skipped the country shortly afterwards, fleeing to Malawi and sparking diplomatic tensions between Pretoria and Lilongwe.
South Africa sought their extradition, a process that has now effectively collapsed.
In March, the high court of Malawi ruled against sending the pair back, citing hearsay evidence, improperly authenticated documents and concerns for their safety.
Justice Mzonde Mvula found that the extradition process “fell short” of Malawian legal standards and violated the principle of audi alteram partem, which is the right to be heard, because the magistrate’s court delivered its ruling without allowing the Bushiris to present their defence.
The ruling set aside a previous decision by a magistrate’s court that had ordered their committal for surrender to South Africa.
Meanwhile, Bushiri, who has rebranded his ministry as the Jesus Nation Church, says his following has grown since his departure from South Africa.
“Our church grew five times more than when I was in South Africa. Our church grew bigger,” he said.
He claimed the church now boasts more than 2-million registered members across South Africa, with branches in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town.
TimesLIVE
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