Church squatting divides FCC
Patricia Edwin | Wednesday March 5, 2014 10:12
While some say that the churches should be left alone until a suitable place is found for them, others say that the council should not encourage squatting because it is illegal. Opponents said squatting makes the city untidy and can scare investors away.
The councillors were commenting on the speech of the mayor, James Kgalajwe at the full council meeting last week.
In the speech, Kgalajwe said for a long time they have been planning to deal with illegal self-allocation, occupation and development of state land by some churches in the city.
As a result, the council engaged umbrella bodies such as Minister’s Fraternal, Botswana Council of Churches (BCC), Organisation of African Instituted Churches and Evangelical Fellowship Botswana (EFB) to come up with feasible solutions to the problem.
“The meeting which was held on January 30, 2014 unanimously resolved that in order to maintain law and order in the city, all churches that are illegally squatting should relocate and restore the land to its original state within 14 working days,” he said. He stated that the period elapsed on February 20 and the council has now embarked on a compliance survey and serving enforcement notices to perpetrators. He encouraged councillors to talk with the churches in their respective wards to work harmoniously with council officials and help resolve the problem.
“This is a sensitive matter and I advise the council officials to handle the matters that arise with due diligence. The meeting also resolved to assign Ministers Fraternal to make proposals on possible solutions aimed at addressing the problem of non-availability of land for churches and forward to council for consideration,” he added
The councillors, however, expressed different views on how the squatting problem should be handled. Professor Tlou opposed the eviction of churches because they provide spiritual healing. “When we move them where do we take them to? What is the alternative? Why can’t we just leave them until a place is found for them? Churches contribute to the city and lives of people in the city,” he said.
Another councillor, Ace Ntheetsang said the council should not encourage squatting because eviction is a painful process. “We should not encourage churches to squat. Let us just find out how we can help them find legal places to worship and not encouraging them to squat,” he said.
He was supported by Robert Mosweu who questioned why churches should be allowed to squat when the city wants to maintain a certain image to attract investors.
He said that churches that have squatted are abusing the land by not taking care of the environment. He said the churches want to use pit latrines, which the city council is phasing out. “Between Block 3 and 4, it is a sorry sight what is happening there because of the churches. To cap it all, most of the squatting churches are not even registered,” he stated. He said the council cannot entertain any illegality.
Godfrey Kaelo who sympathised with the churches pleaded with the council to go slow until a place is found for them because if they are evicted, they will not have anywhere to go. He said that in his ward, he has advised the churches to keep the environment clean and other councillors should do the same. He conceded that squatting is wrong, but the churches have taken measures to correct the situation including coming to the council and going to the Office of the President to plead their cases.
The chairman of the SHHA Committee, Stanley Masalila, said they have been going around addressing the churches and letting them know squatting is illegal. He said they will bring feedback for the council to chart the way forward.