New Prophetic Churches (NPC) in southern Africa, together with related neo-prophetic formations, individualise sacred authority around a media-facing leader subject to few institutional counterweights. On the basis of a synthesis of peer-reviewed scholarship (Kgatle, Kaunda, Ramantswana and Sebetseli, Orogun and Pillay, Resane, Banda, Mashau, Meyer, Agazue, Mottier, Mayrargue) and institutional reports (CRL Rights Commission; qualitative vigilance of the Miviludes type), this article analyses mechanisms of spiritual-authority abuse, the commercialisation of faith, and religious recompositions sometimes discussed under the heading of syncretism. It carefully distinguishes documented facts from media allegations, refuses any conflation with institutionalised classical Pentecostalism, and proposes Protestant criteria of discernment centred on Scripture, ecclesial plurality, and the dignity of persons. West Africa and the Francophone diaspora are treated comparatively, without essentialising the continent.