Johannesburg - The Star has a startling revelation about the more than three million member-strong International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC), currently engaged in a court battle about the legitimate leader of the church.
After church successor MG Modise’s death, the church endured a lengthy battle between Modise’s two sons, Tshepiso Modise and Frederick Leonard Modise, and Mike Sandlana.
The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed to The Star that there is no registered link between the church founder and Sandlana, who claims to be his son. According to the registrar of births, Modise’s only children are Julia Winifred Modise, Jenette Khumalo (nee Modise), Tshepiso Modise, Sebitse Bertha Mabusela (now Modise), and Frederick Leonard Modise, who runs the church’s headquarters, called Silo, in Zuurbekom, west of Johannesburg.
Sandlana is said to have refused to subject himself to DNA tests to prove his paternity.
Sandlana did not respond to The Star’s questions about his claim that he is Glayton’s son, and why his last name was Sandlana if he was.
Members of the Modise family have called Sandlana an imposter, pretending to be Modise’s son and pretending to be the most senior priest to benefit from the church’s R400 million estate.
Last year, fraud allegations were reported to the police by Magalane Benedicta Sandlana, Sandlana’s estranged wife.
Days after the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court released Sandlana and the co-accused on bail, Magalane opened another fraud case with the Alberton police when she allegedly found out that the ownership of her Mercedes-Benz C-Class W205, which was previously registered in her name, had been changed.
Magalane complained that she found out that she had been declared dead and that a death certificate had been issued by the Department of Home Affairs. Sandlana was arrested with three others in relation to her estate being put under his executorship.
Last year, hundreds of IPHC members protested outside the Westonaria Magistrate’s Court, on the West Rand, where advocate Goodwill Papie Maluleke was appearing on allegations of defrauding the IPHC Jerusalem faction, led by Sandlana. Allegations are that Maluleke was hired by the Sandlana-led faction of the IPHC to represent its 42 members, who were arrested in 2020 following a massacre at Zuurbekom, where five people were killed.
In January, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson in Gauteng, Phindi Mjonondwane, told IOL that the murder charges against the 42 had been struck off the court roll. The IPHC Jerusalem faction insisted the SAPS had failed in its bid to pin the crime that took place at Zuurbekom on the 42.
An SAPS document leaked to The Star states that Sandlana, born Michael Bhekumuzi Gilbert Sandlana, has five phone numbers and was criminally charged several times, including for possession of an illegal firearm.
This is a developing story.
Additional reporting by Jonisayi Maromo.
The Star