FCC to evict squatting churches by order

Pini Bothoko | Wednesday March 19, 2014 14:53

Recently, churches summoned the FCC leadership for a meeting where the latter handed a petition to the former requesting them (FCC) to stop demolitions of the temporary structures, which they use for worship.

Israel said in an interview that they have the petition, but all squatting churches would still have to vacate the areas because it was against the law to occupy them.

“We are worried about squatting churches in the city. There are more than 300 squatting churches at the moment.

“These churches make the city look dirty and we are not sure if what they are doing at those places is illegal or not,” he said. Israel said that they are considering people’s health, safety and want churches to operate legally not as squatters as they currently are.

“We have applied for a court order to evict difficult churches who are refusing to close shop.

“There are some churches that have pleaded with us to give them some time until the end of this month whilst they are looking for a place of worship,” he said. He said that a majority of the churches have opted to choose renting than closing up.  As for the difficult ones they will be evicted very soon, said Israel.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Brown Khupe, the founder of The Jerusalem Bethesda Church of Christ in Zion at Monarch and a member of the church committee tasked with negotiating with the council commented on the issue.

He said that the councillor of the area Raoboy Mpuang alerted them about the court order on Monday at a Kgotla meeting at Phase 6.

He added that they are now unsure what to do anymore because they have tried to plead with FCC to give them some more time.

“We are people of peace not war.  If they are fighting us, there is nothing we can do anymore. We are considering looking for a lawyer too.

“We are to meet as a church committee and discuss the way forward. We have given them a petition and it looks like they are not addressing it, but rather they consider evicting us (anyway),” he said. Khupe said that what pains them is that their churches have registered legally and some have headquarters in Francistown.

He said as Easter holidays are approaching they do not know where they will hold their commemorations if the council opts to demolish their churches. “We have given FCC the petition and we were looking forward to their response.

“But if they have decided to demolish our churches without responding to it, there is nothing we can do.  We are just praying for peace,” said Khupe.

Khupe said that they applied for church plots over 30 years ago and it is FCC’s responsibility to have issued them plots. “If they opt to demolish our churches, it’s a bad thing for us because we are not refusing to look for plots.

“We know that there are some churches that came yesterday but there are some churches that have been in existence since 1980 and have never committed any illegal offence.

“FCC should be evicting those churches and leaving us in the meantime whilst looking for a place to allocate us church plots.  “We are pleading for help this time and do not know who can help us,” Khupe said.