23 Mar 2015

Church leaders in Manyana in the Moshupa-Manyana constituency support the bill that seeks to amend the 1972 Societies Act.

They were responding to the Vice President, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi’s address on the proposed bill during a consultative meeting in Manyana recently. Mr Masisi had explained that Parliament was discussing the bill with the view to amending some of its sections. 

He noted that the bill intended to increase the number of people needed to register a church from 10 to 250.  Mr Masis explained that the bill also suggested that there be an advisory and arbitration council that would advise the minister on matters pertaining to the church.

Mr Masisi, who is also Member of Parliament for the Moshupa-Manyana constituency, said the penalties carried by the current act were too low and expressed the need to adjust them. 

He pointed out, as a case in point, that if a church operated without registration it was currently charged P50 and a cumulative P10 only, which he said made it easy for offenders to choose to pay and ignore the law. 

Thus, he said the proposed amendment suggested a P2 000 fine for an unregistered church with a cumulative P50 on top. He reasoned that the act was last amended in 1983, thus outdated.  He argued that there were only few societies when the law was crafted but had since swelled to 7 397 including 1 913 churches. 

He observed that church conflicted and divisions particularly over material resources were rife because it was easy to break away with ten members to register a new church. Mr Masisi also pointed out that the amendment was prompted by the mushroom of churches from outside the country, which seemed to be taking advantage of the lapse in the law.

Mr Masisi stressed that the intention was not to destroy any church adding the country was founded on the fear of God. He  also allayed fears that the bill outlawed any number of people below 250 to have a prayer meeting. 

He said any number of people could still be allowed to come together and worship God.  The Vice President has further challenged the church to advise politicians not to use foul language during their meetings.

One of the leaders Mr Meshack Ditau who gave the bill thumbs up complained that some fly by night pastors especially from outside the country were using the word of God to swindle some unsuspecting Batswana of their hard earned cash which he feared gave the church a bad name. 

He said if passed into law, the Bill would regulate the church. Mr Ditau said with the current legislation it was also easy for some unrepentant church members to break away and form their own evading a disciplinary action instituted against them.

Another speaker Mr Ignacious Kgaodi said the 250 threshold was still too small, “We can’t have a small village like Manyana with 29 churches, there is a very serious problem in this country,” he said.

He complained that as a result of the mushroom the church has lost its integrity thus suggested 500 members for a church to be registered.  Mr Kgaodi also advised that the public health aspect be attached to the bill to regulate some church activities.

One of the leaders Mrs Dorah Mosemela suggested that visiting churches from outside the country should be barred from collecting money during crusades to avoid cheating desperate worshippers.

For his part the Manyana/Mogonye/Bikwe minister’s fraternal committee chairperson Mr Teacher Segatlhe suggested that churches registered outside Botswana should have autonomy over their local material resources. 

He said most of the churches were still controlled from outside which often times caused conflict. Meanwhile some church leaders in Moshupa expressed caveats over the bill. 

While they, in a larger part, agreed that the church needed to be regulated, they said 250 was too high a number for a church to be registered. One of the church leaders Mr Edwin Bothate said the amendment was long overdue adding the penalties were no longer effective because they were ridiculously too low.

Another church elder Mr Douglas Matshidiso argued that the composition of the proposed advisory and arbitration council should have pastors to guide the minister.  He furthermore said churches from outside should be required to buy land locally and be run by Batswana.

He observed that most of the foreign churches operating locally were entirely run by foreigners who sometimes disappeared into thin air with the church finances. Mr Matshidiso added that anyone who wanted to register a new church should be put through a personal interview to establish their motives. The purpose of the meeting was to afford the church representatives the opportunity to contribute to the discussed Bill. ENDS