Bushiri co-accused to go on trial in November

The co-accused in the R102m fraud case, involving self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife, Mary, will go on trial in November, reports IoL. This after Willah Mudolo, his wife, Zethu Mudolo, Landiwe Ntlokwana, Nomalarvasagie Reddy, Sateesh Isseri, as well as Stephanie Olivier, appeared briefly in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court last week. The co-accused are facing charges of fraud, theft and money laundering which allegedly took place between 2017 to 2019. Legal counsels agreed that the trial will begin in November in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria). In October last year, the legal counsels for the accused raised concerns about the sluggish pace of the case following a request by the state for a postponement for further investigations. At the time, the defence requested that the matter be struck off the roll. However, the state was given until January 2023 for the police to complete their investigations. In January, the state informed the court that the investigations were complete and that they were ready for the matter to be transferred to the High Court for trial, minus the Bushiris. The Bushiris fled SA after they were granted R200 000 bail each in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court in 2020. Attempts are being made to extradite them from Malawi.