Africa-Press – Botswana. The Registrar of Societies has urged churches to register for annual returns.
Ms Ofentse Gojamang urged thus during the National Prayer Service launch in Gaborone on Thursday.
Ms Gojamang said they were automating services as a way of improving service provision.
She said they could have easily migrated data from the old registration platform to the new digital registration of societies.
“Because of non-compliance by most of the societies, churches being the worst, we could not just do that,” she said.
She said they therefore had to call societies forward to indicate their existence by means of registration.
Ms Gojamang further said since registration was digital, churches had to find someone conversant with digital platforms.
She said whoever was selected was to bring forth the church certificate and an approved PDF copy of the constitution.
She said they also needed the names of the church members to be enclosed and those currently holding office.
Ms Gojamang further said they also needed a financial report by the church treasurer and accompanying bank statements to support the financial report.
Ms Gojamang said the system was user friendly and appealed to members to comply as they were nine days away from the deadline, which is February 24.
She said failure to register indicates non-existence of the society and the non-comliant would be de-registered.
She also said falure to register would render the existing certificate invalid, as the Registrar of Societies would be issuing new improved digital certificates.
She also said re-registration meant that all services, inclusive of submission of returns or amendments of society constitutions, were going digital.
She said so far there were only two church denominations that had already registered.
She also said Botswana Council of Churches (BCC) had to register digitally and appealed to all societies to enquire from their office if they encounter any challenges.
On other issues, Ms Gojamang said her office was worried by conflicts among members of the clergy.
She said such conflicts were not in line with what the church stood for.
Sharing the scriptures, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Botswana, Reverend Metlayotlhe Beleme said Batswana were God’s people.
He said God had promised to be with his people as they crossed the waters and when they were going through the fire.
In Psalm 23, David was convinced that even at the end of life, God would be with him, he said.
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