The crimen injuria case was opened soon after the man addressed an ANC gathering.
The man who allegedly said that Premier Refilwe Mtshweni was the lover of deputy president DD Mabuza is on the run, the police have said.
Bishop Max Maumela of the Faith Harvest Bible church in eMbalenhle is being sought by the cops.
Mpumalanga police spokesman Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said that Maumela initially told police that he would hand himself over to them but never did.
That was in August 2018 and Maumela had said that he would do so in the presence of his lawyer.
“He is no longer available on the phone [number] we have,” Hlathi told national weekly City Press.
“We’ve gone on a manhunt,” Hlathi said.
“Evading arrest is a matter that will be dealt with in court,” he said.
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Maumela, who campaigned for President Cyril Ramaphosa to be ANC President, attended an ANC event in eMbalenhle, Secunda organised to campaign for David Dube to be Mabuzs’s successor in the Mpumalanga province.
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The organisers of the events on 28 July 2018 then gave Maumela the stage and he then told those in attendance that Mabuza was a “murderer” and that Mtshweni was his lover.
His speech was captured on a video clip that went viral on Facebook.
“We need people who have a vision, who have made it in their lives without killing other people. Comrades who have made it in their lives without victimising, sleeping around and doing all those things,” the bishop said in the video.
“We can’t have a murderer as a deputy president and then you have the girlfriend of a murderer as a premier. It doesn’t work that way. We need a man of integrity,” he said.
Now Maumela’s phone is off.
On 31 August 2018, he reportedly posted on his Facebook timeline that he had lost his cellphone and was requesting his friends to inbox him their contact details.
His Facebook account indicates that he last posted on 24 October 2018.
(edited by MLM)
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