Suspects appear over church attack
AT LEAST 41 men, arrested during the attack at the Leonard Modise-led International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) headquarters in Zuurbekom, Gauteng, appeared in the Westonaria Magistrate’s Court on Monday charged with murder, attempted murder and malicious damage to property.
National Prosecuting Authority’s Gauteng spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said: “Two of the suspects were injured during the crossfire between the alleged assailants and the church’s security officials. They are currently hospitalised and will appear in court as soon as they are released.
“An attorney, a member of the SANDF and a SAPS official are among the accused who appeared in court. All accused were remanded in custody till today, July 15, for further investigations.”
On Sunday, after the attack of the IPHC headquarters allegedly by a rival faction seeking to take over control, Leonard Modise appealed for intervention to stop bloodshed.
At least five people were killed in the takeover bid on Saturday morning.
“This is a church of peace, a church of love and a church which heals. The people who attacked this place were here to hijack God’s land. We are begging you to help us, as law enforcement agencies,” said Modise, younger son of church leader ‘Comforter’ Glayton Modise, who died in 2016.
The church, which boasts a 3-million strong membership in South Africa and neighbouring countries, has been engulfed in a bitter three-way conflict to succeed Glayton Modise, who “inherited” the church from his father and founder “Comforter” Frederick Samuel Modise in 1998.
There has been intense conflict between the three main contenders – Glayton Modise’s two sons Frederick Leonard Goitsemang and Tshepiso, and Michael Sandlana, reportedly Modise’s son out of wedlock – to take over the reins of the church.
Leonard Modise has in the past told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria that his father publicly and lawfully anointed him to be his successor before he died.
He leads the IPHC group based at the Silo headquarters church in Zuurbekom.
The other two contenders run splinter groups elsewhere.
Tshepiso Modise leads one of the biggest IPHC branches in Springs, east of Joburg, while Sandlana leads the splinter church from the Jerusalem branch in Pretoria.
In November 2018, a shootout between the feuding factions left three people wounded outside the church in Zuurbekom. In 2017, the warring factions went to court over claims that more than R110 million was missing from the church coffers.