[imagesource: Sunday Times Daily]

Michael Sandlana, 60, might just be one of the most controversial and corrupt clergymen in Africa.

He is already facing charges for faking the death of his estranged wife so that he could inherit three properties valued at nearly R1,5 million in total.

Magalane Benedita Sandlana (on the right of Michael in the header image above) was very much alive and found out about the situation only when her bank told her about her apparent death, reported Sunday Times Daily.

It was found out that Sandlana was in cahoots with his lawyer, Albert Ramothwala who helped with all the fraudulent documentation to gain access to Magalane’s assets.

Ramothwala had helped the church leader hand in the documents to the master of the high court in Pretoria, which included Magalane’s “death certificate”, inventory of properties, a nomination form, and acceptance of trust as executor.

For that crime, he and his lawyer are expected to go on trial in the Pretoria magistrate’s court in June.

On top of that unforgivable sin, Sandlana (and his company Ntate O Lerato, where he is the director) is under investigation for allegedly stealing the identity of a rival church leader who used to run one of Africa’s biggest churches before his death.

Glayton Modise headed the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC), which had approximately three million people in the congregation:

Image: Sunday Times Daily

The IPHC pastor’s son, Frederick Modise, succeeded in his father role in 2016.

Sandlana was the church leader at a rival church faction, and clearly would not let Modise rest easy.

The Sunday Times Daily has established that Sandlana’s company is central to an investigation regarding the transfer of ownership of two buses owned by IPHC, which were hijacked soon after Modise’s death:

At the centre of the probe is a fraud charge in which Modise’s ID smart card was used to complete the transfer of ownership process. The department of home affairs (DOHA) last month confirmed that Modise’s ID smart card was irregularly issued on February 13 2017 — a year after his death.

Strong evidence suggests that this was the doing of Sandlana, with Frederick confirming that “during June 2021, without my permission, the ownership of the buses was changed from both my father and the IPHC NPC to the company known to me as Ntate O Lerato that is owned (by) Mike Sandlana”.

How a dead man’s ID was obtained and used for this dodgy situation is truly fascinating.

You can read the details about the investigation here.

[source:sundaytimesdaily]