30 Nov 2015

The Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu, says it is yet to be decided when the recently amended Societies Act of 2015 will take effect.

Answering a question in Parliament, Mr Batshu noted that this was due to pending of completion of the establishment of the advisory and arbitration council, as well as the review of the society’s regulations, which were critical to its commencement.

He said the delay was a result of an error at section 14 of the act. He said the act prescribed that membership of the council be drawn from the non-governmental organisations council instead of registered societies. Mr Batshu added that as a correction to this, a Society’s Amendment Bill was presented before cabinet and approved on the 11th November 2015.

He said in the meantime, his ministry continues to register churches under the old Societies Act, and added that a total of 55 churches had been registered since the amendment. He said that the progress of the implementation could not be measured since it had not started.

Minister Batshu was answering a question asked by the Member of Parliament for Gaborone North, Mr Haskins Nkaigwa, who wanted to know the number of churches registered since the amendment of the Societies Act and whether the minister was satisfied with the progress. Ends