02 Oct 2025

In dramatic turn of events, maybe a last ditch effort by residents of Lentswelemoriti to return peace to their mission village, residents and their village advisory committee have stated that they, together with the church were the legal owners of Lentswelemoriti mission village.

In their claims, some members of the advisory committee detailed a plethora of assertions and presented historical documents from Mafikeng which they argued buttressed their claim to the land, which hitherto has been known to be a freehold farm privately and solely owned by St Engenas Zion Christian Church.

In a meeting conducted by a taskforce, set up by President Advocate Duma Boko and led by director for Local Governance and Developmental Planning under the Ministry of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Ms Queen Taolo, recently, residents detailed plenty of claims and allegations chiefly against one Mr Piet Lekganyane and what they termed an illegal church.

At the top of their claims, residents of Lentswelemoriti, through members of their village advisory committee, cleared that they and the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) were the rightful owners of the farm contrary to long held views and misinformation that has been peddled by some  members of the church.

Mr Benjamin Ntshole, who is a national treasurer for the St. Engenas ZCC in Botswana, said that they uncovered documents that proved that their forbearers in Lentswelemoriti were the legal and legitimate owners of the private farm.

He reported that their research, which led them to Mafikeng, uncovered that Lentswelemoriti was a mission village purchased at 7 500 Pounds by the first inhabitants of the land, being the then members of ZCC before the birth of the now St. Engenas ZCC.

Mr Ntshole corroborated his claims with a letter allegedly authored by the national church’s secretary, Mr Khutsafalo Kadimo who indicated that Lentswelemoriti did not have a sole owner as has been reported.

“In short, the letter (from the secretary general in Botswana, based in Tlokweng) states that the title deed has never changed from ZCC to the now St. Engenas ZCC after the latter was duly registered in 1974,” said Mr Ntshole.

“It is on record that on October 18, 1949, the banished Zionists contributed around 7 500 Pounds to the account of their lawyer in Zeerust, one Mr Colsen, with the intention to buy land where they could live peacefully after fleeing Kgatleng where Kgosi Molefi of Bakgatla, banished them after they embraced ZCC,” Mr Ntshole explained and added that the seller and buyer entered into an agreement in January 16, 1952.

The members had apparently sought to buy land in Molopo, Gaborone and Tati, but eventually settled for Lentswelemoriti, according to Mr Ntshole.

The purchase agreement, he said, detailed that buyers deposited a total of 4 265 ounds after which an agreed 500 Pounds or more was paid as installment with six per cent annual interest, according to Mr Ntshole. 

He also indicated that the title of the land was then transferred fully to the ZCC although approval was only rendered  in November 17, 1960.

However, the residents’ troubles began with the emergence of one man who identified himself as Piet Lekganyane. Not only did Mr Lekganyane act as an impostor, but also engaged in acts of intimidation by bringing into the shrine some church security personnel allegedly armed.

Actually, Mr Ntshole said that the same Mr Piet Lekganyane, who hitherto had been tormenting residents of Lentswelemoriti was documented as Piet Makhudu Makola.

He alleged that Piet rode on the power of Lekganyane name to benefit from undue legitimacy as he sowed seeds of discord amongst the residents of Lentswelemoriti.

In fact, Mr Ntshole labelled Piet as a member of the ‘illegal church that calls itself St. Engenas ZCC CR8475’ which has since been deregistered at the Department of Home Affairs. He is reportedly in cahoots with Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi, apparently ex-communicated from the church and allegedly enjoying unfettered access to government offices.

As a matter of fact, residents of Lentswelemoriti clarified that they were not in conflict with the ‘legal St. Engenas ZCC registered in September 1974,’ but were persecuted by members of an ‘illegal church’ led by a man who introduced himself as Mr Piet Makhudu, not Lekganyane.

Residents claim that it was after the purchase of the farm that residents of Lentswelemoriti and the Bishop Joseph Lekganyane, founder of St. Engenas ZCC, set up a board of trustees that facilitated the construction of the school buildings and allocation of residential plots.

Actually, residents recalled that the conflict started brewing when some men led by one Mr Stone Seoromeng with Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi and some ex-communicated Mr Okna Nake surfaced at the mission village to brew the conflict, according to Mr Ntshole.

However, after the ex-communication of Mr Nake from the church now came one Mr Piet Makhudu Makola who facilitated the impostors, Mr Ntshole narrated.

“The church documents, including copies of his passports in our possession corroborate our claims that the man leading the illegal church fraudulently registered in 2009, is not a Lekganyane as he claims,” said Mr Ntshole as he waived the documents to the applause of some attendants

In addition to their woes, the people of Lentswelemoriti accuse the Ministry of Local Government and Traditional Affairs through Assistant Minister, Mr Ignatius Moswaane, whom they accused of abuse of office and alleged allegiance to the ‘illegal church.’

Allegations are that Mr Moswaane summoned the advisory committee twice to his office trying to broker peace and offering an olive branch by way of dispatching a fleet of four buses to ferry church members to the holy city of Moria last month, a gesture they claimed to have been dismissed.

In a sea of allegations, Mr Ntshole claimed that the illegal church had captured many government offices. This, he said, was supported by their discovery that they found footprints of Mr Molebatsi in every government office they sought the intervention of and would subsequently be given a cold shoulder by the officers.

The residents also accused the district commissioner’s office of being biased towards members of the ‘illegal church.’ 

In the list of uncooperative offices are Botswana Police Service, accused of helping aggressors’ mandate while the department of veterinary services has been fingered for peddling untrue claims of foot and mouth disease in the farm in order to remove livestock from Lentswelemoriti.

However, while awaiting the outcome of their matter, the residents of Lentswelemoriti, through their advisory committee, revealed that they have packaged evidence enough to report the country at the United Nations.

Although allegations were pounded at their direction, the delegation led by Mr Lekganyane and Mr Molebatsi’s local entourage did not attend the task force meeting despite having promised to attend every meeting in Lentswelemoriti. Also, no one associated with the ‘illegal church’ contributed their views at the meeting despite being present.

In the previous meetings, Mr Lekganyane poured scorn on the residents’ claims describing them as nothing and refusing to apologise for the disrespect.

 He said that the residents had no claim to the land and could not develop the plot.

Actually, Mr Lekganyane threatened residents with eviction and payment of lease if they continued calling for developments which he said were prohibited in the church-owned land.

 Again, he threatened that he had the power to stop holding of kgotla meetings in the farm, saying whoever wanted such a meeting may be forced to conduct it outside Lentswelemoriti.

The chairperson of the church council also said that the church had no obligation to consult residents on the developments it was carrying out on its land, like erection of perimeter electric fence, saying those who wanted to live outside could source plots elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the chairperson of the taskforce, Ms Taolo informed the residents that they intended on expediting their report to President Boko so that their concerns and grievances could ultimately be addressed. ENDS