IS TB JOSHUA'S PROPHECY ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA COMING TO PASS?

Four months after Nigerian cleric 'T.B. Joshua' gave a series of prophecies concerning South Africa, the writing on the wall shows a significant semblance to his words.


In several articles widely circulated online, Joshua is quoted as telling congregants on January 3rd 2016 that a Southern African leader would face a 'peculiar' trouble, calling for prayer during February's ending and April.

The prophecy sparked a national debate when it was disingenuously misinterpreted by Malawi's Presidential advisers to mean their leaders death would fall between this time-frame.

Peter Mutharika responded with a controversial verbal attack against the 'prophet', suggesting his predictions were 'fake' and financial enrichment the actual motive.

However, Joshua's followers point to the current travails of South African President Jacob Zuma as being the subject of the prediction.

The South African president's hold on power looks increasingly frail as calls for his resignation continue to heighten.

This follows the damning corruption scandal which has engulfed Zuma after a court ruled on March 31st that he had "failed to uphold" the constitution when he did not pay back some state funds used for the upgrade of his personal home.

Joshua additionally predicted on the same day the fluctuating South African rand currency would eventually 'stabilise'.

Although initial signs seemed to contradict his prediction, the announcement of Pretoria's successful issuing of a foreign dollar bond led to South Africa's rand, stocks and bonds all rallying, with investor confidence lifted.

"Prophet T.B. Joshua did give a word of prophecy concerning this South African business turn around," wrote Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper in its report on the news, which stated the rand seemed to be finally showing signs of stability.

Joshua stressed that South Africa's attention should be directed to fighting the economic implications of the 'El-Niño' drought.  

“The government should not be tempted to surrender most of their industries to foreign countries,” he warned, adding that the farming industry would especially be affected.

In what has been described as the worst drought in more than 100 years for the rainbow nation, Al Jazeera recently reported it is costing South African farmers more than an estimated $600m in lost crops.

On the same day, Joshua gave a global warning concerning the volatile North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, stating he saw an 'arrow' being released from the communist nation which would 'affect the world'.

Days later, North Korea announced they had developed and tested an H-bomb, revealing later in April that it had successfully tested a rocket that will let it launch nuclear strikes on countries as far away as the United States.

T.B. Joshua is arguably Africa's most popular albeit controversial pastor.

He boasts an impressive presence on social media, with over 2,000,000 fans on Facebook and nearly 350,000 YouTube subscribers.

Joshua has an especially large following within South Africa, with hordes still flocking to visit his church in Nigeria despite the building collapse incident that claimed the lives of 84 South Africans in September 2014.

Tebego Motalaote is a writer currently based in Johannesburg, South Africa.