At the weekend, news broke that self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri fled to Malawi. The man is out on bail after having spent some time in prison on charges of fraud and money laundering. He then went on to write a statement listing several demands that he wants the SA government to accede to before he would return to the country.

As expected, this enraged a lot of people, who correctly accuse him of undermining our country’s judicial system and democratic institutions. And it is correct to make this argument. But I am concerned that in our justified criticism of Bushiri, we run the dangerous risk of resorting to Afrophobic bigotry...