26 Sep 2022

Some of the global legislations  put in place to prevent illegal activities have impacted on the church’s development.

According to president of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA) Reverend Sikhalo Cele,  legislations such as  the Financial Action Task Force (FATF),  although critical had had an effect in the development of the church.

Speaking at the 41st UCCSA general assembly in Gaborone recently, Reverend Cele said the UCCSA was a SADC church and required to comply with the law.

While UCCSA welcomed the global legislations to prevent and fight terrorism and money laundering in the region, Reverend Cele said they requested governments in SADC to ensure that the church in Southern Africa was not curtailed by such such international standards.

He said the church was faced with unfolding challenges of regional stability.

“We have a church in Mozambique where we experienced the Cabo Del Gabo disturbances,” Reverend Cele stated, adding that such were some of the challenges in the region which the church had to grapple with.

Assuring the church of government’s commitment to the church, Minister for State President, Mr Kabo Morwaeng said Botswana subscribed to other international organisations.

He said Botswana complied with international standards set by international bodies, to prevent acts of terrorism and money laundering among others. Therefore, he said failure to comply in most cases would result in economic effects such as the country’s previous FATF grey-listing.

He said grey-listing negatively impacted  the economy. Therefore, he said Botswana created the new Society’s Act not only to shield the country from international money laundering and terrorism, but to also protect the church.

He said there had been a lot of money laundering in some  church worldwide, some of which used to finance terrorism. “As government we had no choice but to do something to save our small economy. We live in a global village that we do not have power over,” he said.

Mr Morwaeng assured the church leadership of the open door policy, whenever they needed to engage on matters affecting the church and development of the country. ENDS