Bishop Makamu is a South African pastor who is also a media personality. He is the founder and senior pastor at the popular Endless Hope Bible Church in South Africa. He is also an author and reality TV star who stunned people with his appearance in the reality TV series, I Am Bishop I Makamu.
The cleric has also caught a lot of attention as a motivational speaker and life coach who is known for dishing out words of advice to his many followers on social media. Makamu is also respected as a relationship coach and consultant.
However, even though many people respect Bishop Makamu as a pastor and life coach, he is also known to be a very controversial figure and has made headlines for the wrong reasons a number of times since he started his career. He has also ruffled feathers a couple of times, making him one of the most criticized and highly talked-about pastors in South Africa. Without a doubt, details about Bishop Makamu’s career and personal life make a very interesting read.
Bishop Makamu Was Born In Gauteng
Bishop Makamu, whose full name is actually Bishop Israel Makamu, was born in Katlehong, a large township in the Gauteng Province of South Africa.
The pastor’s real age remains a mystery because he has failed to reveal this to the general public. However, it is believed that he is now in his 40s. It is noteworthy that Bishop Makamu was raised in Katlehong.
Makamu was raised in a religious home. His father, Titus Makamu, was a pastor and this meant that the young Makamu was taught the Bible and Christian tenets from when he was very little. Makamu was very fond of his father and was very heartbroken when the man died in 2017. Makamu’s mother, Rophinia Makamu, is still actively involved with the church today.
He Began Preaching While In Secondary School
Of course, Bishop Makamu grew up with serious pressure to be completely upright especially because of his father’s status as a ‘Man of God’. He was supposed to be a good kid since his father was a pastor, however, Makamu did not like church activities very much as a child. He was not wayward or disobedient as a child but he felt reluctant to engage in church activities the way that he should have.
But things soon changed when he began attending secondary school. Here, he turned a new leaf and became obsessed with church activities. He became so involved in the church that he started to preach to students and also prayed for them. His fame as a ‘young preacher’ soon went round the school and this earned him the nickname ‘Bishop’ which has stuck till today.
Bishop Makamu Studied Theology
When Bishop Makamu finished high school, he already knew what he wanted to do with himself. He knew he wanted to be a preacher so he decided to go to a Bible school and study theology. Eventually, he attended the Christian Family Church International Bible College in South Africa. By the time he graduated, he was ready to spread the gospel all over the world.
However, Bishop Makamu has always maintained that the gift he has to preach is inborn and comes naturally to him. He didn’t get it from college or Bible school. He only went to Bible school to polish his God-given talents.
The Pastor Worked Briefly In The Corporate World
It is noteworthy that even though Bishop Makamu went to Bible school and was determined to spread the word of God, he did not immediately start his pastoral work when he finished Bible school. Instead, he spent some time working in the corporate world.
According to reports, Bishop Makamu actually worked briefly as an operations manager at a company before he found his way back into full-time church business.
He Is The Founder Of Endless Hope Bible Church
After briefly working in the corporate world, Bishop Makamu delved full-time into the church business. He founded his own church called the Endless Hope Bible Church in South Africa. As expected, he did not start out flying as he had only a few people frequenting the church. But as time went on, things changed and membership increased in leaps and bounds.
Today, the Endless Hope Bible Church has grown so large that it now has as many as 14 branches around South Africa. He is greatly loved by his members who adore his unconventional preaching style. He is also down to earth and has revealed that he actually receives a salary just like his 84 employees spread across his 14 churches.
Bishop Makamu Is A Reality TV Star
Bishop Makamu has since become a very popular figure in South Africa. Preaching and owning a church are not the only things that have brought him fame. The pastor is also a stakeholder in the South African entertainment industry. As a matter of fact, Bishop Makamu is famous as a TV show host and a reality TV star. He is the host of the South African TV show called Rea Tsotella. The show airs on the DStv channel, Moja Love.
The pastor showed his charismatic nature on the show, winning a lot of fans and admirers for his work. The cleric also has his own reality show called I am Bishop I Makamu that airs on Moja Love. Bishop Makamu designed the show, I am Bishop I Makamu to show his followers the kind of challenges that he faces behind the scenes as a pastor and as a man. The show was centered on his day-to-day activities, including his family life.
The Pastor Is Also A Businessman
Apart from being a pastor who preaches the gospel on and off the pulpit to thousands of people, Bishop Makamu is also a business owner who makes money from other sources. According to reports, the pastor owns a funeral home service.
Bishop Makamu’s funeral home service is called iMakamu funeral home. The pastor launched the service in 2013 and it now operates within the borders of South Africa. The business offers all forms of funeral services to South Africans.
The Sex Scandal That Almost Destroyed Bishop Makamu
In 2021, Bishop Makamu was roped into a scandal that nearly destroyed his ministry. The scandal broke when a damning recording of him emerged in which he was heard asking a lady for sexual favors. In the recording, which went viral around South Africa, the pastor was heard asking the lady to give him something that can be interpreted as him begging for sexual favors.
However, the pastor, who agreed that it was his voice, denied that he was asking for sexual favors. According to him, he was actually asking the lady for keys and not for sexual favors. He insisted that the recording was doctored to make him look evil. However, he stepped down from the Rea Tsotella TV show pending an internal investigation into the recording.
To make matters worse, the pastor was roped into another scandal in May 2021 when a former employee of his church accused him of sexual assault. According to her, the pastor sexually assaulted her in September 2018 at his office in Alrode in Alberton, east of Johannesburg. As expected, the allegation made a lot of headlines around South Africa especially because of Makamu’s status as a pastor.
Bishop Makamu was consequently arrested when the woman accusing him of assault opened a case against him. The pastor spent some time in custody before he was arraigned in court and released on R2,000 bail. The whole development caused serious problems for Bishop Makamu and threatened to destroy his church and career.
However, interested parties soon waded into the matter and mediated between the pastor and the woman accusing him of assault. In August 2021, the National Prosecuting Authority announced that it has withdrawn the prosecution against Bishop Makamu because the woman accusing him of assault had dropped the case since there was a mediation process between herself and the Bishop.
Bishop Makamu has also gone back to hosting the Rea Tsotella TV show. The Moja Love channel released a statement in July confirming that the embattled pastor was back on the set of the popular show. It appears that all is now calm for the pastor after the stormy scandals that nearly ruined his entire ministry.