Rea Tsotella’s spicy Bishop Makamu dishes advice in new book

He believes the Bible is the best book ever written. But TV presenter Bishop Israel Makamu says what follows that is his self-help book, Wrong Passengers.

“My book came from my constant need of wanting to help people,” he tells DRUM.“In the book I call people who are misplaced ‘passengers’,” he adds.In the book’s 132 pages he gives direction on how to deal with passengers.“My book helps you identify a wrong passenger in your life and how you disconnect from those people that are not meant to be in your life,” he adds.

It has taken him five years to pen the book.“It took me this long, whereas some people write books in a week, because I didn’t want to go to Google and search for advice on the internet. I wanted to give people good content and advice they can use for many generations to come.” he says.“I also wanted to advise people on the dangers that come with being misplaced or having people who are misplaced in your life. In some cases people find themselves at jobs and positions that were not meant for them but they are forced to stay because they need the money. Some people get into relationships with the wrong people and end up in toxic or abusive relationships. So, the book helps people to identify situations that are not meant for them and assist them to get out before it’s too late,” he adds.

Coming from a religious background, Bishop I Makamu says the book can be read by people from any religious background.“We have all had to remove people in our lives that we felt were not good for us. The person might not be happy about the detachment but they will thank you later when they finally connect with the person meant to be in their life forever,” he says

In Wrong Passengers, Bishop I Makamu uses his own experiences to set the tone and touches on people who are meant to come into people’s lives briefly, those who come seasonally and those who are meant to be in people’s lives forever. “A seasonal relationship comes to help with something needed at a specific time and they leave your life. It does not have to be a bad thing. A lifetime relationship is someone who will always be in your life. It is often hard to identify these people and to sometimes cut people out of their lives or to let go. The book also advises people on how to detach,” he says.

In his case, Bishop Makamu talks about how he met his wife through a man that he never saw again, which in his book he calls a “one-time relationship”.“There was a man I met once and never again who connected me with my wife. He was a mechanic that fixed my car. When I dropped him off at home I met my wife who was his neighbour. When I gave my wife a call a day later, she told me he had been shot and killed and I never got to see him again. Had it not been for him, I would have never met her. That man served his purpose in my life and in the book I give that example as a “one-time relationship,” he says.

Wrong Passengers will retail nationwide at R300 from 1 February.