Bishop Israel Makamu of the Endless Hope Bible Church in Alberton, considered one of the most famous and equally controversial preachers in South Africa, has earned a place in both the mainstream and online media spaces over the years.
Although his stunts have earned him a large following, he has also faced public backlash for some of his actions that the majority of the public found offensive.
Bishop Makamu’s most recent and possibly most controversial moment occurred in May 2021, when a voice note between him and a woman who was allegedly a former employee of his church was leaked and went viral.
The bishop was allegedly heard soliciting s*x from the young woman who rejected his advances in the voice note.
So who was the woman alleged to be Bishop Makamu’s girlfriend in the leaked voice note? Here is everything you need to know about her and the whole scandal that nearly brought Makamu’s career down.
Who was Bishop Makamu’s alleged girlfriend?
Following the scandalous leaked audio, it was only normal for tweeps to try to find out the identity of Bishop Makamu’s alleged girlfriend.
It didn’t take long for them to come up with a face whom they claimed was the woman behind the leaked audio. The photos of the beautiful young woman whose identity was not revealed circulated on Twitter with tweeps hilariously “forgiving and understanding” Bishop Mukami as they acknowledged the woman’s beauty.
It however later emerged that the woman whose photos had trended on Twitter was not Bishop Makamu’s alleged girlfriend and tweeps had the wrong girl. This was after a few family members of the young woman rubbished the claims that she was the one in the leaked audio tape and explained that the woman in the photos is Xhosa who doesn’t speak Setswana (the language used in the tape).
What became of Bishop Makamu?
While the woman in the tape’s true identity was not revealed to the public, the woman later filed a sexual assault case against Bishop Makamu, who was arrested and held at the Brackendowns Police Station on May 26, 2022.
Bishop Makamu, as expected, denied claims that the video was sexual, explaining that the audio was recorded in 2017 and was altered to extort money from him. He also voluntarily stepped down from Moja LOVE TV to allow for further investigation.
He was later released on R2,000 bail, and his Moja LOVE Tv show Rea Tsotella was later reinstated in July 2021. The case against him was later dropped as well.