Cape Flats pastor Oscar Bougardt flew into a poepstorm when he went to join “kill the gays” holy man Steven Anderson in Botswana this week.
President Ian Khama of Botswana yesterday ordered the arrest and deportation of the controversial American pastor, who was banned from South Africa last week over his anti-gay remarks.
Anderson, of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Arizona, in June notoriously celebrated the gunning down of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida by saying “there’s 50 less paedophiles in this world”.
Khama told Reuters he had ordered Anderson’s arrest after the pastor said in an interview with a local radio station in the capital Gaborone yesterday morning that gays, lesbians and adulterers should be killed.
“He was picked up at the radio station. I said they should pick him up and show him out of the country,” Khama said in an interview.
“We don’t want hate speech in this country. Let him do it in his own country.”
He added Anderson had slipped through their ports last Thursday before all authorities could be alerted.
But Anderson denied he was arrested.
“I am not being arrested. I am leaving Botswana voluntarily,” he told witnesses at the radio station, adding in the local Setswana language that he loved Botswana very much.
Anderson and 20 of his flock are on a “soul winning” campaign, and on Friday posted he had already won over five souls.
Bougardt, of Strandfontein and of the Calvary Hope Ministries, who was sued for R1 million for preaching against homosexuality, offered the US pastor accommodation in Cape Town after a Joburg hotel, and two restaurants cancelled his reservations due to his controversial views on gays.
Bougardt said he met with Anderson on Monday night in Gaborone, and was back in South Africa last night.
He posted on Facebook: “I met with Pastor Steven Anderson and some of his missionary team.
“To my surprise, Pastor Steve spoke to me in Afrikaans. Today [Tuesday] we going to work on a documentary interview to be released in six months and I will also be going on a Soul Winning marathon with him.”
Anderson has posted pictures of himself and his missionaries being welcomed at Wimpy and Spur in Botswana, the two restaurants who banned him in SA.