Pretoria - Judge Portia Phahlane, who is presiding over the International Pentecost Holiness Church (IPHC) leadership wrangle, has had to adjourn the high-stakes matter, citing death threats against her in the three-way rivalry.
eNCA reported that the judge was protected by at least four bodyguards when she walked into courtroom of the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday morning.
When the matter resumed in court last week, two of the IPHC factions, led by Tshepiso Modise and his younger brother Leonard Modise, popularly referred to as Jakobo by his followers, sought to halt the court case, stating that the parties had not come to a consensus on the presiding judge.
Each of the two brothers, Tshepiso and Leonard, are claiming leadership of the vast church, squaring off against third contender Michael “Tau” Sandlana, who reportedly leads the biggest division of the church that has boasted having more than three million members.
The faction, led by Sandlana and known as the IPHC Jerusalema, successfully argued for Judge Phahlane to continue presiding, accusing the Modise brothers of individually using tactics to delay the court matter.
However, the two disgruntled factions, led by Tshepiso and Leonard Modise, sought leave to appeal. On Wednesday, they were set to hear the fate of their applications for leave.
Speaking to eNCA after the case was postponed on Wednesday, Priest Vusi Ndala, on behalf of the IPHC Jerusalem, said: “There are some people who want to ensure that the court case will not take off.
“As the church, we are really devastated, we are disappointed with what has happened in court today. It is not good to see the presiding judge surrounded by bodyguards, that is very sad and we condemn such an act. We will not allow, and we have said this before because we had sensed that there were aspersions cast against the judiciary – we said that in our statement issued two weeks ago and at our previous briefing.
“We cannot point fingers in particular with regard to the threat but we have always said previously, there are delaying tactics. There were some delaying tactics that were at play when this trial started, in accordance to what we observed. We, however, cannot associate these threats to those delaying tactics but we have always maintained that there are those that do not want this trial to go ahead.”
The IPHC, said to be the second-biggest church in South Africa, has been engulfed in a bitter three-way conflict to succeed Bishop Glayton Modise, who died in February 2016 after leading the popular church he had inherited from his father and the founder, Frederick Samuel Modise in 1998.
According to media reports, Bishop Glayton Modise left a vast estate worth almost R400 million. He allegedly died without a valid will and a clear succession plan for the popular church, throwing the congregation and his family into a feisty legal tussle.
Three main contenders emerged, vying to take over the reins of the church – Glayton Modise’s two sons Frederick Leonard Goitsemang and Tshepiso, squaring between each other and a third contender, Michael Sandlana who is often reported as as Bishop Glayton Modise’s son out of wedlock.
Leonard Modise leads the IPHC group in Zuurbekom, while Sandlana leads the Pretoria faction, and Tshepiso runs the third splinter group.
IOL