Mike Sandlana, the leader of a faction of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) − whose nationality is also a subject of police investigation − has three dubious IDs, one registered on a date that does not exist.
These revelations were laid bare on Wednesday at the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Court, where he was applying for bail for allegations of corruption, money laundering, and bribing a judge to rule in his favour in a long-standing church succession dispute.
The issue about his three questionable IDs is contained in the affidavit by investigating officer Lt-Col Ludi Schenelle.
The SAPS and open-source trace reports have records of the applicant having identity number 610215...and 660215...
— Lt-Col Ludi Schenelle
Schenelle told the court two of the three identity numbers were being investigated by the home affairs department. The department, however, did not have to probe the third ID due to its obviously nonexistent date of February 29 1969.
“I have determined that the applicant has two identity numbers. The SAPS and open-source trace reports have records of the applicant having identity number 610215...and 660215....
“I have [also] obtained the following records from home affairs: An extract from birth register has shown that a late registration of birth was made for the applicant in 1980. The birth register reflects that he was born on February 29 1969 in Moretele, North West.
“I have established that this date did not exist, as 1969 was not a leap year, and that the month of February 1969 ended on the 28th,” said Schenelle.
According to an affidavit obtained from home affairs’ civic service supervisor Marilyn Ndhlovu, in 1993, Sandlana applied for rectification from February 1969 to 1966 and it was approved. In 2010 he again approached home affairs for another rectification from 1966 to 1961, and the application was also granted.
“The department was not aware of the 1993 rectification due to technical limitations; no history on the system of 1993 could be detected. However, [an] investigation was conducted after the request, and the 1993 file was retrieved from the departmental archives under identity number 690228...
“The information confirmed that this is one and the same person from all identity numbers mentioned above. Furthermore, the analysis done on the two Bophuthatswana birth certificates submitted appears to have been tampered.. [as] the details on the certificates differ. However, the document serial numbers are the same. All these birth certificates submitted do not correspond with the original birth register of 1980.”
Sandlana, through his lawyer Adv Christo Meiring, told the court he had two identities and blamed home affairs for recording his birth date wrong when he applied for an ID.
Schenelle also told the court that in 2021 when Sandlana was arrested for fraud for allegedly faking the death of his estranged wife Magalane in order to inherit properties worth R4m, he told the investigating officer in that matter that he was from Eswatini.
Sandlana was arrested after he allegedly submitted, to the master of the high court in Pretoria, a death notice and a letter of executorship on April 9, which bore his personal details and signature.
The notice was submitted along with a certified copy of Sandlana’s ID, the couple’s marriage certificate, the “death” certificate, inventory of properties, a nomination form, acceptance of trust as executor, an affidavit, and ID copy of Magalane.
As a result, Schenelle said that Sandlana’s citizenship was being investigated.
The fraud case of the fake death certificate is before the Pretoria high court, and will resume in January.
In explaining Sandlana as a flight risk, Schenelle revealed that he had been reliably informed that Sandlana had officials at the borders of Mozambique and Lesotho who let his convoy pass without being stopped or searched.
Sandlana was previously found guilty in two cases of possession of an illegal firearm and ammunition opened in Letlhabile in 1996, and another case of extortion registered in Ga-Rankuwa in 2000.
Sandlana was arrested earlier this month on charges of corruption for allegedly bribing Pretoria high court judge Portia Phahlane in exchange for delivering a favourable judgment in the succession dispute.
Phahlane, 57, was allegedly promised a house, and R2m was deposited into a trust account of a conveyancer. She was released on R50,000 bail, and her son, Kagiso, and the IPHC’s spokesperson Vusi Ndala — who both face corruption and money laundering charges — are out on bail of R10,000 each.
Sandlana’s bail application has been postponed to Monday, December 15.
Sowetan
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