ZION Christian Church leader Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane yesterday finally undertook DNA tests to determine the paternity of a man claiming to be his son.

ZION Christian Church leader Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane yesterday finally undertook DNA tests to determine the paternity of a man claiming to be his son.

Sowetan reported in May that a 20-year-old man calling himself Tshepo Barnabas Edward Lekganyane Junior wanted the leader of Africa's biggest church to pay him a R50000 monthly maintenance.

Lekganyane Junior, of Orange Farm in the Vaal, approached the Johannesburg Family Court where he laid a claim to his filial link to the bishop.

He is accusing the charismatic man of the cloth of neglecting him while his "siblings" are trumpeting in the bishop's glory.

This led to senior magistrate Daniel Thulare summoning the respected clergyman to court.

But Lekganyane Junior's case appeared shaky when Emelia Lerata, a woman believed to be his mother, insisted he had mental problems.

Lekganyane Junior dismissed claims that he had mental problems by insisting that Lerata was not his biological mother. Although the two are staying together, he claimed his biological mother was Elizabeth, the bishop's wife.

He told Sowetan then: "Emelia (Lerata) was our nanny while I was staying in Moria (the church's headquarters outside Polokwane). She stole me from my mom and brought me up as her own son."

The bishop used this to delay submitting himself for DNA testing.

But yesterday the ZCC leader drove himself into the offices of the National Health Laboratory Services in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, accompanied by his wife Elizabeth.

The DNA results will be presented in court next month.