How International Pentecostal Holiness Church got entangled in new political party

The International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC), one of the biggest churches in the country, has hogged the headlines for all the wrong reasons since the passing of its leader Gayton Modise in February 2016.

IPHC, with about 2 million members, is currently divided into two warring factions of Jerusalema, led by Michael Sandlana, and Silo led by Leonard Modise based at the church’s Zuurbekom headquarters west of Johannesburg.

These two factions are currently logged in a fierce succession battle over the leadership of the church in the high court in Pretoria, with five people killed during an attack at the church’s headquarters, in July 2020.

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The court has set aside three weeks to hear the IPHC succession matter that kicked off on Monday, with scores of members from both factions descending to the capital in support of their respective warring leaders.

Political links

The latest scandal to rock the IPHC is its alleged links to expelled Action SA provincial secretary and former Democratic Alliance’s acting Tshwane mayor Abel Tau’s new political party, the United Africans Transformation (UAT).

Tau and the Jerusalema faction have since come out to rubbish claims that the church had encouraged Tau to form a political party and that a number of members will come from the church.

Explaining the link with IPHC and Tau, Priest Vusi Ndala, the Jerusalema faction spokesperson, said their group has been collaborating with MS Foundation since 2019 to address poverty and unemployment across in SA and in neighbouring countries.

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He said this was pursued through a charitable course and programme called Tau Project, which Tau was associated with, but this did not mean that the church had directly taken a decision to establish a political party.

Ndala said even if the IPHC was associated with Tau’s political party, this would not be illegal or unethical if true.

“What attracted [Tau] and those that worked with him to Tau Project as they worked on their political project is not within our ambit to articulate, as the Church was not involved in that regard,” he said.

Publicity stunt?

Ndala said Tau was misquoted in the City Press article about the IPHC encouraging him to form a political party, saying the fact that Tau and other church members started a political party did not mean he was approached by the church.

He said it never occurred to the church that Tau sought to use the name of the Church and his association with Tau Project as a public launch pad for his new party.

“We don’t have or have had no suspicion whatsoever that [Tau did] something untoward. He works closely with Tau Project of MS Foundation… The fact that Abel works with members of the church and he has a plan to continue with them as individual members of the church, it doesn’t mean that he is associated with the church,” Ndala added.

Tau confirmed that his party has a relationship with TAU Project but said his party was separate from the church.

“…I want to state categorically that I am the leader of the UAT and the founder of this organization. It is not an organization founded by the church or by any means directly because of a decision by the church one way or the other,” he said.

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