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THESE CLOWNS MUST BE REGULATED

10/02/2019 08:59:00 By SIBONGINKOSI MAMBA

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Myself and the alphabet P have a history, one would swear. After tackling potential and its several facets last Sunday, today I intended to talk about pride.
Then boom. A certain gentleman from Malawi happened.

This lad is one Shepherd Bushiri. His followers call him Prophet Bushiri. Otherwise some of his stunt-followers refer to him as Major I. Whatever that means is a subject for another day.
And I must declare that his alleged holiness or lack thereof is none of my business. It is a matter between him and his saviour.

Now readers of The Times will vividly recall that in the very first sermon, I did state openly that I feel very strongly, particularly against the clutter that call themselves men of God when in fact their actions dictate that they should be called men of shame for that is what they represent and stand for. I further decried the fact that these clowns waste our precious moments in time. They do not end there, they go on to steal.
Actually, they rob gullible congregants of their hard-earned monies.

obliged to offer
This lot is always armed with portions of scriptures which they aim at the poor congregants who then feel obliged to offer. And this is against God’s will. The God we serve loves a cheerful giver according to the Bible. However, these robbers in sheepskins instil fear with certain scriptures and compel the petrified saints to give and enrich these hyenas.

Now get me clear. In that very first edition, I mentioned that there are awe-inspiring men of God who are following the example of our precious Lord Jesus Christ. These are the pastors that sincerely ask for alms without threatening the brethren.
Those are the pastors who know that what they collect is for catering for the needs of the destitute, not only in the church but in the communities they live in.
How Bushiri happened? It was the morning of the first day of the month of love, which is February 1, 2019.

The scene was in the Republic of South Africa and the protagonist was a son of Malawi, one Shepherd Bushiri. The antagonist in the set was the Hawks, a body that is responsible for the investigation of serious crimes. The location is the North West Province, Rustenburg to be precise, at a certain hotel whose address and name I do not care about. The Hawks pounced on and arrested Bushiri together with his wife, Mary. They were charged with Fraud and Money Laundering.
To give the reader a bit of background, the alleged man of God was arrested and charged with the same offences in the year of the Lord 2018 in the month of April. Back then it was alleged that he was clandestinely siphoning about R15 million per month to his home country.

And spare a moment for Bushiri. He could be forgiven there for not forgetting his roots. He remembered that while the sun shone, he should make hay and store it in barns back home. A sensible individual, is he not?
On the morning of the February 1, 2019, when he was arrested, Bushiri had just been cleared of any wrongdoing in the stampede that occurred in his church, the Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG). The said stampede was in December 2018, and three women lost their lives.

Bushiri was cleared by the Commission for Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural Religious Linguistic Communities (CRL).On the day, I am certain some of his loyalists were bragging and telling all who cared to listen that they knew their prophet was innocent. And he would come out unscathed. I can hear them quoting Exodus 14: 14 where the scripture states that God will fight for his children. Little did they know that the Hawks had wiped their lenses and everything was not only perfectly visible but magnified in their eyes?

crucify Shepherd Bushiri

However, mine is not to crucify Shepherd Bushiri.
Only the courts have the space and latitude to traverse that path. But my gripe is the gullibility of the flock that Bushiri is leading. According to the eNews Channel Africa (eNCA), the church members decried the fact that all the accusations against their man of God were an act of malice. According to eNCA, the members of the ECG believe the Hawks were intent on denting the image of their pastor. They reasoned that it was all because the attempts to wash off Bushiri and drag his name through the mud in the stampede episode did not materialise, hence the second arrest for the same crimes.

The allegations of possible abuse of people’s beliefs did not hold any water for the loyal congregants. Phew! As the vows in marriage, Bushiri’s crowd stands with him through thick and thin. For better or worse, the congregants will still be firmly holding Bushiri’s hands to ensure that he crosses safely even in crocodile infested rivers.

Now closer home, I am wondering if we have a body that is similar to the Hawks - an institution that is paid by the taxpayer to investigate people who are intent on emulating the Malawian lad. In our own Eswatini the sad part is that once someone mentions or touches religion, we literally fall into a trance.

We are hypnotised and our response to stimuli is eroded hence by the time we attain the First World Status every corner will be having a tent where worshippers are conned the fruits of their toil in the name of the Lord. And no one will come to their defence. It is sad. It is pathetic. It is painful. Disheartening is mild. People are haemorrhaging money that they have laboured for in severe conditions. Somebody has to stand up for the defenceless. Before we wake up to news that a certain randy man of God has disappeared with millions of Emalangeni, we need to seriously consider the issue of regulation and affiliation of the mushrooming synagogues.

best interests of citizens

Those who have been calling for the regulation of the church are not satanic or demon possessed. They have the best interests of the citizens of this country at heart.
They know and understand that while religion touches the heart and soul, it is not a licence that should enable theses scumbags to take advantage of emaSwati.
While the issue of legislation is being pondered upon, something needs to be done.
For the record, I am a born again Christian who is striving to do better than yesterday each morning, lest I be labelled an agent of some forces by some naïve egocentric beings. Ngiyabonga.