Yet another delay has arisen in the seemingly interminable legal effort by South Africa to extradite the evangelical preacher and self-styled 'Prophet' Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary from their home country Malawi to face many charges in South Africa including rape, theft, fraud, money laundering, jumping bail and fleeing the country in violation of immigration law.

The Bushiris skipped bail in November 2020 and fled South Africa to Malawi by means that remain a mystery. Pretoria has been battling since then to get them back to SA and into court.

The Bushiris' lawyers raised new objections in the Lilongwe Magistrates' Court on Friday, 17 June, to an application by the South African and Malawian prosecutors to the magistrates' court to ask the Malawi High Court to order South African courts to hear the evidence of South African witnesses.

The Malawi prosecutors had argued on behalf of South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) that the many witnesses to the Bushiris' alleged crimes in South Africa should not have to travel to Malawi to testify in person in the extradition hearing.

One reason was that some of the victims claimed that Shepherd Bushiri had raped or sexually assaulted them and so...