Yet another church battle breaks out
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday January 26, 2018 18:20
The battle is the latest to hit the local faith sector in recent times, where highly publicised disputes have rocked other churches such as the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), Evangelical Lutheran, Roman Catholic Church and Shepherd Bushiri’s Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG Botswana) church.
Bethel, founded in 2010, operates in Gaborone and South Africa, with an estimated membership of over 1,000, of which 200 are in Botswana and close to 800 or more in SA. It pays rental of P12,000 per month locally.
According to documents passed to Mmegi, a group of ‘concerned members’ within the church have written to the Registrar of Societies asking for action to be taken against the church leadership, which reportedly is headed by Zambian prophet and overseer, Julius Haamuchenje and his Motswana wife.
Concerned group members allege that there are some members that have been on the executive board for more than seven years while the constitution gives a maximum of three. The letter says the previous board has been in office for six years and is dominated by family members, something that the prophet’s wife, senior pastor Kebangwe Haamuchenje, refuted.
Kebangwe says the family dominated the board when the church started because when they formed it, it was mainly family members, but things changed when more people came to church.
According to the constitution, the overall running of the church should be done by the church executive committee, the letter says, adding that the overseer often overlooks this and makes changes without prior consultation with the committee.
“Appointing the senior pastor who happens to be his wife in which he was approached and said he can’t be questioned on spiritual matters and refers to the constitution as orthodox and belittling to the society’s act. The overseer has no permit but continues to preach which is against the law of the country,” reads the letter.
It states that there has been utterance against congregants not giving anything to the overseer either it being land, money or other material things, which puts into question the values of their church community.
They also accuse the overseer of chairing meetings with some of the executive committee members when the constitution clearly states that the chairperson is the one who is supposed to arrange and chair executive committee meetings. The concerned members say since the church was registered in 2010 it has not audited its financial books and has no evidence of annual reports.
It continues: “Of recent, an amount of P3,400 to buy an additional pulpit has been taken out of the society’s bank account without prior authorisation by the Board and this action followed the utterance, which the overseer made and deemed spiritual”.
They also accuse the overseer and his wife of having accumulated more than the church itself in terms of property as they have five residential properties and yet the church doesn’t have a single structure. Kebangwe did, however, present to Mmegi statements of mortgage payments towards three of the five properties from her personal salary earned from her bank job.
The concerned members say there is unlawful distribution of church funds as loans to some church members yet there is no evidence of repayments.
“The wife to the overseer has been one of the church account signatories for the past six years and the church account is held where she works. Every month-end the congregants are requested to contribute some money towards the pastors’ basket, yet the church has no ‘lead’ pastor and these funds are then taken to the overseer’s house,” the letter says.
However, senior pastor Kebangwe said she is not shocked that some members had written to the Registrar of Societies accusing them of something that they know is not the truth.
“Some of the pastors in our church have been fighting the overseer for some time now because they want to take over the church. We are aware that our church has been under investigation. My husband who is the prophet and overseer of the church has no work permit in Botswana but in SA. He once had a work permit here, but it was not renewed and we understand it was because of allegations made by some members to immigration people,” Kebangwe said.
She admitted that she was once a signatory of the church, but there is a new treasurer now.
She said the pastors’ basket is there because the church does not pay him a salary, but buys food for him which amounts to P600 and admitted that they have not been auditing their financial books. She, however, said that they have been advised to do so.
The Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs minister, Edwin Batshu said his ministry is dealing with so many church issues, but he does not recall the Bethel case. Maybe the Registrar of Societies is dealing with the matter. I can only know about it if it is brought to my attention,” he said.