A "rescue mission" went horribly bad for popular Pastor Paseka "Mboro" Motsoeneng when he got nabbed recently for speeding on his way to a praying expedition.

The charismatic pastor, known for his controversial stunts and long nails which he claims are the source of his healing powers, confirmed to Sunday World that he was caught doing 131km/h on a regional road in Thaba Nchu in the Free State. 

Mboro, who now faces possible jail time, has already appeared in court and was awaiting his fate.

He said his actions were a matter of life and death as he was speeding to pray for someone whose life solely depended on his healing powers.

"Yes it happened, I appeared in court and I'm waiting for the outcome.

"I was following someone who was leading me to the person who was critical that I was going to pray for.

"So I followed, in that following it happened that my speed was 131km/h," he said.

The pastor said he could not disclose the prescribed speed limit on the road he was travelling on as the matter was still before court, but Sunday World understands the limit on such roads is between 60km/h and 80km/h which places him at least 50km/h above the legal speed limit.

According to Mboro, there are people with far more serious cases roaming the streets.

"I was going to save a life. It's not like I had raped [someone], or was reckless or it was drunk and driving, it was a rescue mission which ended up in an unfortunate situation," the pastor said.

He also accused the Thaba Nchu police of omitting some of the details he had made in his statement, especially his reason for speeding.

"They wrote on their papers [initial records] but when it got to court they chose not to disclose what was in the statement. That's the price to pay for being famous," he said.

The police had not responded to the allegations Mboro made by the time of going to print.