The arrest of Mike Sandlana, leader of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) Jerusalema faction in Brits, has blown the lid off his alleged criminal conduct to sway judgment in the long-standing leadership feud in one of SA’s largest churches.
Sandlana and his spokesperson, Vusi Ndala, were arrested on Tuesday night along with Pretoria high court judge Portia Phahlane, who presided over the controversial legal battle for control of the church, and her son Kagiso.
The death of IPHC head Glayton Modise in 2016 triggered a succession battle among his two sons — Leonard, who heads Silo in Zuurbekom, and Tshepiso, who leads the Springs branch — and Sandlana, whose Jerusalema faction is based in Brits.
It split the millions of congregants and sparked multiple court cases over control of the church’s vast assets and influence.
The Zuurbekom church this week hailed the arrests as validation of its efforts to prove Phahlane’s judicial bias and claims that she had been “captured” with R2m in kickbacks from the outset for her rulings in favour of Sandlana.
She was so rude to our people. We felt that she was biased towards us. - Abiel Wessie, Zuurbekom faction spokesperson
“She was so rude to our people. We felt that she was biased towards us. Her attitude in court towards our two legal teams, and towards Sandlana’s team, she was very nice to their team. And very arrogant to our teams. When this came out, it rubbed us down to the suspicion that we had,” said Abiel Wessie, Zuurbekom faction spokesperson.
Wessie added that Phahlane had slapped them with a punitive order. “The order on the withdrawal of the succession left us with punitive costs, including the cost of the three counsels. The cost went up to approximately R10m,” said Wessie.
As part of his application to have Phahlane recused from presiding in the consolidated succession trial, Leonard submitted an affidavit by former church insider Adv Goodwill Papie Maluleke in August 2022 to demonstrate the trail of misconduct and impropriety by Sandlana, the “man of God”.
In the affidavit, the advocate, who had become Sandlana’s close confidante, said he was lured into the Sandlana’s breakaway plan when he [Sandlana] made claims that he was the son of the late leader and helped mobilise congregants to join the church.
“Several members of the church and I were deceived by such claims and proclaimed Sandlana the new spiritual leader of the church. So convinced was I by Sandlana’s deceit that I announced to the wider membership of the church the existence of the will, in his possession, which turned out to be untrue.
“My actions earned me what appeared to be the goodwill of Sandlana, who both appointed me as a priest of the IPHC as well as a member of the council. I was his close confidant,” read the affidavit.
He painted a picture of being caught up in Sandlana’s agenda. This included personally intervening in a maintenance dispute against him after an extramarital relationship, and a foiled coup of the Zuurbekom church in July 2020, when 42 men were arrested.
“After the incident, he opened a case of kidnapping at the Brooklyn police station. This made me question whether he was indeed a man of God or a con man. He knew that he was lying under oath; there were no church members who were kidnapped.
“This was solely to deceive the wider membership of his church into believing that he was justified to invade Silo [Zuurbekom church].”
Maluleke said Sandlana became suspicious that there was an informant in his circle and he began distancing himself from the church.
He then received information from his friends in the church that Sandlana allegedly, suspecting he was the leak, had hired an nkabi [hitman] to kill him.
Maluleke was also privy to information and payments allegedly made to the judge presiding over the matter.
In good faith, he then wrote an anonymous letter addressed to various offices, reporting the relationship between the judge and Sandlana, which undermined her judicial integrity.
Wessie said when the rescusal application failed, the church approached the Hawks to investigate the matter.
In a statement on Saturday, the Jerusalema faction said it stood behind Sandlana’s leadership and “reject any, and all attempts to tarnish his character through unsubstantiated allegations and sensationalist narratives”.
“We stand with him during this challenging time, and we call on every member of the IPHC to do the same. Let us surround him with a fortress of strength and determination. We view this arrest not as an isolated law enforcement action, but as a clear escalation of the external pressures and malicious campaigns that have been orchestrated against the legitimate leadership of the IPHC.”
The church asked members not to be provoked into “any unlawful action”.
Phahlane was granted bail of R50,000, while her son Kagiso and Ndala were granted bail of R10,000 each.
Sandlana’s bail application, which was opposed by the prosecution, has been postponed to December 3.
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