A Malawian cleric, Pastor Shepherd Bushiri, has turned himself in to the police after South Africa issued a warrant of arrest against him for skipping bail and fleeing home to Malawi.
Bushiri and his wife, Mary, are facing several charges bordering on money laundering and fraud to the tune of $6.6m when they fled South Africa and resurfaced in Malawi despite their passports being seized.
On Saturday he told his social media followers that he had left the country because he had received death threats.
Police in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe say the couple surrendered on Wednesday as officers were looking for them following an arrest warrant they received from Interpol.
Some reports say that the self-declared “prophet” and his wife were smuggled out last week by a sophisticated syndicate which specialises in taking stolen cars from South Africa to Malawi.
There have also been suggestions in the South African press that he was smuggled out in Malawi’s presidential jet – something which has been denied by the authorities in both countries.
Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera was in South Africa on a state visit last week, and there has been speculation in South Africa that a member of his entourage had aided Mr Bushiri’s escape.
