During their bail application it became clear that pastor Shepherd Bushiri and his wife, Mary, were a flight risk.
Prosecutors had warned that if released on bail the duo would in all likelihood try to flee. It had emerged that they had Malawian diplomatic passports although they are not accredited diplomats.
It further emerged that their status in SA was being investigated by home affairs and that not only had they allegedly misled the court about their living arrangements but Bushiri had also tried to flee the country on three occasions prior to his arrest.
It is therefore unclear how in the face of all this evidence the court was convinced that they had sufficiently discharged their onus to be released on bail, albeit with conditions.
Nonetheless, that decision would become the first in a series of events that ultimately saw the Bushiris run off to their home country, Malawi, leaving the SA government red faced.
Bushiri announced on social media on Saturday that he and his wife were back in Malawi. In an astonishing display of arrogance, the fugitives placed a string of demands on our government as conditions for their return to SA.
Curiously, their escape coincided with the return back home of Malawi president Lazarus Chakwera, who had briefly visited President Cyril Ramaphosa last week.
It is therefore reasonable that in asking how the Bushiris left SA undetected we must question whether Chakwera’s government had a hand in their escape.
So far the Malawi authorities have distanced themselves from Bushiri’s escape, saying Chakwera would never be involved in any efforts to undermine the rule of law.
If so, we must then expect that the Malawi officials will assist our government to extradite the Bushiris back to SA as soon as possible.
Failure to do this would not only undermine SADC protocols but the credibility of Chakwera’s word as well as relations between SA and the East African country.
Here at home we must acknowledge that it would have been impossible for the Bushiris to leave SA without the assistance of officials at our border posts. Therefore, those who assisted them must be exposed and criminally charged for betraying our country to aid and abet a fugitive.
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