Protesting clergy in the dark over impending OAIC election re-run
Onalenna Kelebeile | Tuesday January 6, 2015 14:13
While interim president of the OAIC Botswana, Tebogo Motlhagodi disclosed that a re-election has been scheduled for March 13, protesting clergymen told Mmegi that they were not aware of the poll plans.
“Together with my fellow complainants we are not aware of the re-run. It is news to us.
“The Ministry (of Labour and Home Affairs) took a decision in August that a re-run of the elections be held within three months, but that period has elapsed and we are yet to received any correspondence on the matter,” outspoken cleric, Ronald Thekiso said when contacted.
Thekiso, Enole Ditsheko, Aubrey Sibanda and Obenne Phokwe lodged their complaint with the ministry, as they were not consulted about the 2013 elections.
“ Only a few people knew about the elections, and those few people were notified by SMSs. There was absolutely no proper consultation,” said Thekiso,
Interim president of the OAIC Botswana Tebogo Motlhagodi confirmed that the election re-run would be held on March 13 in Palapye. He said the re-run was necessitated by the fact that some church bishops protested the previous elections, as they felt they were not consulted on both the elections and registration of the chapter. He added that OAIC Botswana has been operating under the licence of the South African region and said those who protested, pursued their case with the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs.
He said further that the organisation heeded the ministry’s advice and resolutions. Motlhagodi said the ministry mediated in the case. The interim committee is made up of Motlhagodi as president, Daniel Maluke as vice president, Magdeline Jacob as general secretary, Segomotso Tshemedi as treasurer- and additional members are Aobakwe Baakile, Chris Modikwa, Bonolo Ookame, Moitatodi Mateisi,
Ambrose Gwafila, Masekamela Kooitse and Molosiwa Molosiwa.
Apparently, the last committee was not dissolved but was instead given a mandate by the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs to operate on an interim basis until a new and substantive committee was elected.
Motlhagodi added that the majority of the organisation’s membership felt that the complainants could have dealt with the matter indoors to protect the image and reputation of the organisation. But he said they settled for a re-run as a democratic way of doing things in order to grant the complainants a fair hearing. The elections’ rules and relations are that only members of churches affiliated to the organisation are eligible to contest for any position. However, only two members from each church can contest for a position. “We have since circulated letters inviting members to stand for election in all member churches. The deadline for submission of names is January 31.
“Special Forum will be held in Serowe on February 7 to prepare for the elections. We hope that this time around elections will be free and fair,” he added.
OAIC has been in existence since 1984 but was ineffective according to the interim president before it was revived in 2008 with the mandate to be both the mouthpiece of spiritual churches and coordinator national activities of the spiritual churches.
Motlhagodi said they realised that spiritual churches were lagging behind in many aspects and that the churches, through OAIC have since assigned a taskforce to establish the hindrances impeding the growth and development of spiritual churches.
“We expect the report to be ready by March this year. We will also have a historical national OAIC Day in March 30 where we will come together to celebrate and share ideas on how we can grow,” he noted.
Motlhagodi said that there were 616 spiritual churches that were registered in Botswana but only 10 of them have affiliated to OAIC.
“We have since embarked on an aggressive recruitment and marketing drive with the assistance of OAIC sub chapters across the country. “We don’t want churches to operate as stand alones because our unity will add value to our voice on issues of national interest,” he said.