Judge in bribery scandal: ‘She is my child’

As the arrest of high court judge Portia Phahlane rocked the country this week, claims have emerged that she received her first bribe seven months before she was even allocated the case in question — the legal battle over succession within the International Pentecostal Holiness Church.

The timing has raised questions as to how Phahlane — and the man charged with bribing her, church leader Mike Sandlana — knew she would be given the case.

Phahlane said in her judgment on an application for her recusal during the IPHC succession litigation that it had been assigned to her by “the deputy judge president of this division”, Aubrey Ledwaba. However, two independent sources who work in the Gauteng division said that, in practice, court administrators can also be involved in the allocation of cases to judges without the knowledge of the deputy judge president. At this stage it remains unclear how the case ended up being assigned to Phahlane.

Ledwaba presided over the controversial bail application of cartel kingpin Katiso Molefe.

The charge sheet against Phahlane spells out how she was allegedly approached by Sandlana, an account backed up in an affidavit by Sandlana’s former right-hand man Tshepo Desmond Phuthi, who says he co-ordinated the illicit relationship. The Sunday Times has seen this affidavit.

When Sandlana introduced him to Phahlane, he said: “O ke ngawanake, ke judge.” (She is my child, she is a judge.)

Phahlane appeared in court on Wednesday, alongside her son Kagiso, Sandlana and his spokesperson Vusi Ndala.

In the bombshell affidavit to police, sworn a week before Phahlane was arrested on Tuesday night, Phuthi outlines how Phahlane visited the church in about April 2021 with a woman he names as “Morongoa”. The charge sheet names Morongwa Malope as a court interpreter, who is also a member of the IPHC and who allegedly introduced the judge to Sandlana.

Phuthi, who says he worked at the Songo Group of companies as head of logistics, security and financial transfers, exposed a paper trail of payments for VIP security, which he said was provided for Phahlane while she presided over the court case, as well as a R2m cash transfer.

He said Sandlana used Songo to finance his personal interests and complex legal battles, positioning it as a financial proxy to shield himself from liability and to facilitate “judicial corruption through layered, disguised decoy payments”.

Phuti said he wrote the affidavit after falling out with Sandlana, who had accused him of stealing a church vehicle. “I was threatened with death if I dare take Sandlana on.”

In the affidavit he says he was instructed by Sandlana in March and April 2021 to facilitate “the clandestine arrival of a guest”, who he later discovered was Phahlane, at the family home for a two-hour private meeting.

When Sandlana introduced him to Phahlane, he said: “O ke ngawanake, ke judge.” (She is my child, she is a judge.)

Phuti said that following the meeting, Sandlana instructed him to maintain and deepen the connection with the judge outside the church context.

In February 2023 Sandlana asked him to arrange security for the judge — five personnel and a vehicle. Songo claims he was told not to communicate with the judge and to ensure there was no paper trail that could link Sandlana with providing material benefit to the judge.

According to the judgment Phahlane delivered in the recusal application, in 2023, Ledwaba allocated her “case management” duties in the IPHC litigation, which arose from a succession feud within the church, early in May 2022 — about a year after the meeting with Sandlana described by Phuti.

The need for case management arose when a request for consolidation of two separate cases in the dispute was made the previous month.

The Sunday Times has confirmed that this request was sent to Ledwaba. Phahlane informed the parties on May 7.

“Not only was I allocated the matters to case manage, but I had been directed to deal with the whole matter, including any interlocutory applications that might ensue in the process,” she said in her judgment in the recusal application.

The charge sheet against her goes back to the date of her first meeting with Sandlana, in 2021. The charge sheet alleges this meeting took place after the church leader asked Morongwa to access one of the court files in the litigation.

The interpreter obtained the file but “lied” and told Sandlana she got it from a judge’s office. He gave her R10,000 for herself and R20,000 for the judge. But she kept the entire amount for herself. Sandlana then asked the interpreter to facilitate a meeting with the judge, saying “he was prepared to pay any amount of money to a judge for him to win the case”.

“The interpreter thereafter approached Phahlane,” says the charge sheet, and there was a meeting. “Sandlana requested Phahlane to assist in the matter so that the court’s verdict would be in his favour. Phahlane accepted his offer.”

He gave her a cash payment of “an unknown amount” in October 2021, says count 5 on the charge sheet — about seven months before she was allocated case management duties in the IPHC matter.

There were more cash payments of “unknown” amounts and more meetings — in December 2021, February 13 2022 and March 16 2022. At the December 2021 meeting, Sandlana “informed that the matters should be re-enrolled and that Phahlane should preside”. During the February 2022 meeting, “Sandlana proposed to Phahlane that he would get her a house. Phahlane accepted the offer.”

An offer to purchase for a Hartebeesport property was made by Kagiso Phahlane on March 15 2022, says the charge sheet. Though the offer was made by Kagiso, there was “consistent communication” between Phahlane and the property agent, says the charge sheet.

This included a message two days after the offer to purchase was made: “By the way, my son is not buying the property. I am. I just didn’t want to register it in my name. I hope it’s not a problem. Just to ease her concerns about my son, I am a judge (occupation) and … will continue to have my full salary even after retirement.”

The charge sheets details financial transactions between June and August of 2022: R2m was paid from a church-linked company into a conveyancer’s trust account on June 21 that year. Four days earlier, Phahlane said she would make a deposit into the conveyancer’s trust account.

When Phahlane was unable to obtain a bond because she was in arrears for another, earlier, bond, she instructed that the arrears be paid from the R2m deposit. Then, two cash deposits were made: one directly to the conveyancer — using the same reference as the R2m payment. The other was made to Kagiso, who then paid the majority of it to the conveyancer.

However, Phahlane’s 2023 judgment reveals that the corruption allegations are not new; the recusal application included allegations that the judge had been bribed or “sanitised”.

Phahlane refused to recuse herself because “the allegations of bribery cannot stand”. The allegations were made in November 2021, she said, “when this case was not even allocated a judge or considered for case management”.

She said the application had relied on the affidavit of a legal practitioner “who has not only committed perjury … but also brought the bench and the entire judiciary into disrepute”. It required “full investigation” by all the relevant authorities, including the Legal Practice Council, she said.

In her bail application affidavit this week, she again referred to the recusal application, saying it had led to “threats against my life”. She had laid a criminal complaint with the police. She has also sued “various parties”, claiming “a substantial amount”, she said.

Phahlane has been placed on special leave while her suspension is “being considered”, said chief justice Mandisa Maya in a statement this week.

The Sunday Times sent questions to Ledwaba about how Phahlane was allocated the IPHC case but had not received a response at the time of going to print.