BISHOP Makamu was on AmaBishop on Sunday night, 24 May, and he emphasised that he had faced many insults but he was there by choice.
“I’m not here to defend myself, but I’m here to set the record straight,” said Makamu.
He said the recording that had gone viral on social media was not even the whole conversation.
He said he understood that it sounded wrong, but there was another part of the conversation before that one.
He said he asked about who the girl was with at the time because he didn’t want people to question why he would go to a rented place at that time of the night.
“At that time, I thought I had paid the price. This was in 2018,” said Makamu.
He also said he had apologised to the family countless times.
He said he was not flirting and was not asking for sex.
“I received the keys that I came there for and I didn’t have sex with her,” said Makamu.
He said he doesn’t normally talk to his workers or congregants like that but at the time, he wasn’t aware that it would sound wrong.
“I’ve never called her before that,” said Makamu.
He also emphasised that the girl wasn’t 17 years old.
“She was done with school and I wouldn’t have employed her if she was 17,” he said.
He denied trying to bribe the family.
“I don’t mean to disrespect her father but I apologised to him for the misunderstanding,” said Makamu.
“Well, they had audio and obviously, it would be believable. That audio didn’t mean anything to me,” he added.
He said he apologised to his wife because all of this had put her in a bad position.
He also said he wasn’t apologising for the first time.
Pastor Enoch Phiri said it would be hypocritical of him not to forgive Makamu being in this situation because he’s already apologised for his behaviour.
“I don’t see why the public is getting involved because he’s already gone through that, back in 2018,” said Phiri.
Pastor Makhado Ramabulane questioned why Makamu allows girls from his congregants to call him “daddy”.
Makamu said the only relationship he had was a father and daughter relationship, nothing else.
Joshua Maponga said he doesn’t see anything wrong with her calling him daddy because, in some communities, pastors automatically become a father to them.
He said he’s learnt it the hard way but he’ll now avoid calling people and dragging conversations, he’ll get straight to the point.
The father of the victim also joined the show and he said this has devastated them as a family.
He alleged his daughter told him Makamu was asking for sex. She even quit her job at the time because of this.
He said he confronted him, then Makamu assumed that he wanted money from him.
“She was just an innocent church girl but he lured her with this job to get closer to her,” said the father.
He denied ever having the audio edited and said he took the audio to Kaya FM because he didn’t know where else to go.
He said now he has no idea how the audio went viral again.
He said his daughter even tried to commit suicide last year because of this matter.
He said the fact that his daughter was calling Makamu “daddy” annoyed him.
“He’s busy lying to people but one thing’s for sure, God will forsake him one day,” said father.
