Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary get bail of R200,000 each

Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) church leader Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary were on Wednesday granted bail of R200,000 each by the Pretoria magistrate's court.

The couple and their three co-accused face fraud and money laundering charges related to an investment scheme valued at about R102m.

They were arrested in October.

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Their co-accused were granted bail ranging from R20,000 to R100,000.

Earlier in the day, supporters carrying portraits of the self-proclaimed prophet dropped to their knees outside court to pray for Bushiri.

Others sang songs from behind wire fencing erected by police to keep the crowds under control.

Alex Chikakuda said he had come to court to stand in solidarity with the “man of God”.

“I am a foreigner in this land, I have faced a lot of challenges, but since I discovered the prophet in Pretoria, I started attending the church. I started to experience change. Things just started to happen in terms of getting a job. This started changing drastically,” he said.

The 29-year-old was convinced the Bushiris would get bail: “I think he is innocent. He is a man of God.”

This is a developing story.

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