Cape Town - Cape Flats pastor Oscar Bougardt said he watched as immigration authorities led “kill-the-gays” Pastor Steven Anderson out of the country at a Botswana airport on Tuesday.
Bougardt was invited by Anderson to the neighbouring country this week after the latter was banned from entering South Africa last week by Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gibaga due to his hate speech.
This following an outcry by the LGBTI community and the SA Human Rights Commission together with an online petition.
Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist church and 20 of his flock arrived in Botswana on a “soul winning” campaign last Thursday.
Bougardt, of the Calvary Hope Ministries in Strandfontein, who was previously sued for R1 million for preaching against homosexuality, offered the controversial American accommodation in Cape Town after a local hotel cancelled his reservation.
He described his brief meeting with the American.
“He paid for my flight and accommodation at a hotel after he invited me to Botswana as his guest,” he said. “He is so humble and slept in a place among the locals because I was his guest. He and his members met me at the airport and we drove to the hotel. We had a 40-minute conversation discussing the future of churches in Africa.
“He let me call my wife from his cellphone to let her know I am safe.
“I was speaking to her in Afrikaans and when I ended the call, he said to me: “Jy praat ook Afrikaans (You also speak Afrikaans) and spoke two sentences in Afrikaans; he did a good job of it in his American accent.”
“The plan was that we meet after his radio show the Tuesday to discuss that and his documentary he was filming.”
Bougardt was flying out of Gaborone’s Sir Seretse Khama International Airport on Tuesday afternoon when he saw authorities deporting Anderson.
“At 1pm while I sat in the foyer at the hotel, I saw the news that he was being deported,” he said.
“I believe this happened because of an influence from a neighbouring country.
“At 2.30pm, I saw Anderson with immigration, they let him leave without his clothing and he wasn’t even allowed to speak to me.
“He was boarded on an Ethiopian flight.”
Bougardt said he asked Anderson if he had really called for homosexuals to be executed after 49 people were gunned down in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in June.
“He said that he said he didn’t feel sorry for them dying in the shooting, but that the media turned his words around,” explains Bougardt.
Daily Voice