A lawyer has been charged for defrauding the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) Jerusalem branch of R210,000 in bail money for 42 congregants who faced murder and attempted murder charge in 2020.
Goodwill Papie Maluleke, 44, appeared briefly at the Westonaria magistrate's court in Gauteng on Monday and his case was postponed to August 25 to allow his legal team access to the docket.
The men faced murder charges following the July 11 2020 incident where a group of armed men stormed the IPHC headquarters in Zuurbekom in the early hours of the morning and shot and killed five people while others were left injured.
The shooting is believed to have been sparked by divisions in the church over who the rightful leader of one of the country’s biggest churches is. There was conflict between the church’s Jerusalem and Zuurbekom branches.
The state alleges that Maluleke, who was the member of the church council and an internal legal adviser, was tasked with paying bail for the accused members. The money had come from the churches' coffers.
After a yearlong trial, in December last year the matter was struck off the roll but the bail money was never returned to the church.
The church spokesperson, Vusi Ndala, said Maluleke was fulfilling his duties when he went to pay bail and it was under this guise, he said, that the lawyer claimed the bail money to be his in December.
“Because he was the one who paid, he had the original slips. He gave those slips to the attorney that was appointed at the time. In December, when the matter was struck off the roll, our current attorney then instructed him to go and sign for the receipts, get the bail money and send it over to the churches account,” said Ndala.
“Instead he deposed an affidavit saying that the money is his and not the church's and that is how he stole the money.”
Maluleke's attorney Zola Majavu requested that his team be furnished with the docket for perusal, to which the state did not oppose.
“He is entitled to receive the contents of the dockets on which the allegations are based. Because those contents are not ready, we have made arrangements with the prosecutor that I will get the docket tomorrow (Wednesday) and based on that we will know how to proceed,” Majavu said.
Members of the church picketed outside the court singing and holding up placards referring to Maluleke as a “fake advocate working for third forces”.
When asked who the third forces are, Ndala said: “We have been saying all along that there are disgruntled members who happen to be lawyers. They wanted power and money, when they didn’t get that they formed third force elements influencing people negatively against the church. He is one of the masterminds.”
Majavu, who was once a legal representative to the church, said he would not be commenting on the merits of the case.
“We respect the complainants and the due processes of the law. But my client is not losing any sleep over this, that much I can tell you.
“He (Maluleke) is obviously not happy about these allegations and that people are singing insulting songs about him. Let’s just wait and see during trial.”
sibiyan@sowetan.co.za
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