18 Jan 2018

Director of Civil and National Registration Ms Caroline Okello-Wengi says her department has from last year to date de-registered several entities for failing to comply with the laws of the country.

The reasons behind cancellation of these Societies include failure to produce annual returns.

Among these Societies are  associations, clubs and churches.

The  Evangelical Christian Gathering Church International (ECG) led by South African-based Prophet Shepherd Bushiri is among the churches.
 

“From April 2017 to date, the National Registrar has cancelled a total of 71 societies out of which 57 were associations, one football Club, six burial societies and seven churches,” the director told BOPA.
 

She said registered Societies were expected to submit their returns annually after being operational for a year.

Failure to do so, the National Registrar sends a notification for them to give reasons for failing to submit annual returns and also give them time to submit so as to maintain the existence of the Society.

“By the time the Society is given the notification of cancellation, it is when about four years have elapsed without any notification coming forth from that particular Society,” Ms Okello-Wengi said.

She further noted that the Societies Act empowered the Registrar to audit financial statements of Societies, adding however that the Society could be given that power by the Registrar to audit their statements within a specified period of time.

Ms Okello-Wengi said when registering a Society, members needed to develop a constitution that conformed to the laws of the country.

If the mother-body of that particular society was in another country and the members wished to register their Society in Botswana, she said, then the Society needed to develop a new constitution that would be in line with the laws of Botswana as the National Registrar did not allow a Society to operate in Botswana using the laws of another country.

Ms Okello-Wengi further stated that in cases where the mother-body of a Society was outside Botswana and wanted to register in Botswana, Societies Acts required that 75 per cent of the membership should be Batswana

while 25 per cent would be the nationality that would prefer to be associated with that Society.

“Non-compliance to the Societies Act results in the cancellation of the society. Therefore, it is very advisable for Society to adhere to the Act to avoid being de registered,” she said. Ends