Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) leader Prophet Shepherd Bushiri has warned people spreading reports linking him to the ongoing ‘Jane Ansah Must Fall’ demonstrations in Malawi.
Opposition groups in Malawi have been staging protesting in Lilongwe seeking the immediate resignation of Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) Chairperson Dr Jane Ansah and other Commissioners after the disputed May 21 tripartite elections results showed President Peter Mutharika narrowly winning a second term.
The parties say she mishandled the elections, helping Mutharika to win. Despite calls for her resignation, Dr Ansah has held her ground stating that she will not resign.
Several reports in flow on the interweb purport that Prophet Bushiri warned Jane Ansah to resign or else throw the country into chaos.
But South African-based televangelist has denounced people behind the fake reports that are circulating on social media platforms.
On Thursday, Bushiri’s Communications Director Ephraim Nyondo advised the public, via Nyasa Times, to discount the reports for they are “outrightly fake and misleading”, saying that Prophet Bushiri, as a respectable and ordained church leader “does not, directly or indirectly, get involved in the local politics”.
The spox further warned people behind dragging the cleric’s name into politics, saying the long arm of the law will catch up with them.
This is not the first time that Bushiri’s name has been lugged into Malawian politics.
In February this year, an editorial by The Zambian Observer insinuated that Malawian President Mutharika, owing to his solidarity with President Cyril Ramaphosa, was engineering Bushiri’s litany of arrests and detentions in South Africa as the prophet had emphatically supported former President Joyce Banda and not Mutharika.
“Bushiri has made strides in Malawi to influence regime change against Mutharika’s despotic rule. But in retaliation, Mutharika has connived with Cyril Ramaphosa to cook fake charges against Bushiri. This is part of the plan to rig elections in Malawi and because Ramaphosa is also a corrupt person, Bushiri is being persecuted,” the piece alleged.
In the runup to the 2019 Malawian Presidential race, reports were all over social media again claiming that the prophet was contemplating joining active politics as a presidential candidate.
It has also been alleged that the Malawian born prophet funded some parliamentary candidates in the 2019 Malawi polls.
However, Bushiri has refuted those allegations.
While laughing off the reports, Bushiri is on record to have said that the presidency was a demotion for his calling.
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