13 Nov 2017

The assistant registrar of societies, Mr Phodiso Mokgethe has urged church leadership to adhere and maintain good governance in their churches to improve allegiance and tolerance amongst their congregants.

Officially launching Baatlhodi Apostles Ministries recently on behalf of Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu, Mr Mokgethe noted that their ministry was challenged with regard to societies’ registrations where some registered societies especially religious organisations battle to manage their affairs, giving rise to unresolved conflicts. 

He said congregants should be familiar with the content of the church constitution, which should spell out the objectives, structures of the church that included communication channels, disciplinary procedures and tax compliance.

So far, he said they had registered 28 dispute cases of which 20 were for religious societie adding  that some disputes among societies were often caused by strive for leadership positions, maladministration, siblings of founders fighting to inherit the society and lack of knowledge of functions of different structures.

He added that lack of participation in the decision making process by members, abuse of office and also lack of exercise of responsibility by members to their leadership responsible for their action and inaction and mismanagement of funds also contributed to unending disputes.

On that note, he informed them about the amendment of the Societies’ Act for the establishment of an Advisory and Arbitration Council (AAC), the body, that he said was launched on April 2017 and was preparing to work on dispute cases.

Also, he indicated that some other sections that had been amended to increase number of people forming a religious organisation from 10 to 150 and 10 to 20 for other societies and the registration and fees for all societies were now at a flat rate of P500.

Meanwhile, he said government continued to value the role of church in the society as it had displayed a high degree of integrity and with the cooperation amongst the various church denominations, something which had made the nation to pride itself with the element of Botho.

He added that it had also assisted the sick, comforted the bereaved and erected shelters for the needy.

For his part, Apostle Tebogo Kgobogi said his church was established in 2013 and implored different denominations to collaborate to build a united front so that they could spread the message of God accordingly and assist each other to unite families and uproot social ills in their communities.

Earlier in his welcome remarks, Kgosi Legakabe encouraged communities to return to God in truth for the betterment of their lives and also to respect their church leaders.

The church launch was held under the theme, The Lord Jesus Christ Congregates His Church.BOPA