Enlightened Christian Gathering pastor Shepherd Bushiri, who faced a barrage of criticism for his call to his congregation to continue to send through their tithes during the Covid-19 lockdown, has gone on a public charm offensive.

On Tuesday, Bushiri, who also courted controversy this week by charging followers R80 a month to follow his “virtual church” app during lockdown, joined the North West government in distributing food parcels around Rustenburg.

According to his church, 100 of these food parcels came from the self-proclaimed prophet.

The church shared images of the food parcels donated by Bushiri which included sanitary towels, washing powder, toothpaste, canned foods,  juice, cooking oil, rice, tea bags and maize meal.

The church said this was a continuation of what he and the church have been doing for months to ensure that South Africans were “not just safe from Covid-19 but also they should not suffer from hunger”.

The ECG said since the lockdown was announced Bushiri had been “giving out cash and prayers” throughout the country.

Bushiri said during the Monday night online service that the church had “sent out cash to so many people to help them buy groceries during these tough times of Covid-19 lockdown”.

“The ECG leader also made a hint that, in a few days, the church will be announcing its contribution to the Solidarity Fund,” said his spokesperson, Iphraim Nyondo.