NGOS, CHURCHES PUSHING POLITICAL AGENDA TO BE DE-REGISTERED

EZULWINI – NGOs and churches found to be breaking the law will be de-registered.

This is according to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is currently piloting the Non Profit Organisations (NPOs) Bill meant to put in place legislation to regulate Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) as well as religious denominations in the country.  The ministry has raised a concern over the mushrooming of NGOs in the country, which are allegedly involved in money laundering and financing of terrorism. The ministry says in the absence of legislation in place to ensure accountability for funds received by NGOs and churches, there is a high possibility of money laundering and financing of terrorism.

This was during the Ministry of Home Affairs, Parliament portfolio committee’s workshop organised for both houses of Parliament. The workshop was held at the Sibane Sami Hotel yesterday. The statement on de-registration of NGOs and churches breaking the law was made by the ministry’s Principal Secretary (PS), Nhlanhla Nxumalo in response to questions posed by Senate president Lindiwe Dlamini.

While making her submissions during the question and answer session, the senate president noted that currently, there were churches that were non-aligned and said this should be put in order. “I have noted that during your presentation, you have stated that there are some churches that are not aligned to any of the recognised church governing bodies. This should be put in order, we cannot afford a situation where there are people labafuna kuphatsa bantfu, kepha bona bangafuni kuphatwa,” she said. The president went on to state that pertaining to the issue of NGOs, she was of the idea that they were regulated by the Ministry of Home Affairs, however, she was surprised that they were registered under the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Trade.

Corncern

Explaining her concern about then current situation, the senate president said the role or mandate of NGOs was to drive social change. “Let us not sugar coat this, it is clear that their mandate is to drive social change. I agree that it is true they also provide humanitarian aid and develop communities and advocate for human rights. However, I have to insist that their core mandate is to advance or drive social change,” she said. The senate president said the NGOs mandate emanated from their funders who are mainly other nations and if they were not regulated and were not accountable, it would cause problems for the country moving forward. “Certain nations, through NGOs, are pushing a mandate to democratise other countries,” said the Senate president.  

She, however, pointed out that the democracy that was being pursued by these nations was different to the democracy practiced in Eswatini. “One of their foreign policy is to finance NGOs to advance for democratic change in all their facets through funding. This does not put the country in good stand if we are going to have people busy driving social change according to their own perceptions. Tsine emaSwati ngalana sikhuluma Tinkhundla basibuka bulima because they want to impose their own democratic systems,” stated the Senate president. She highlighted the importance of ensuring that legislation was put in place to regulate NGOs in the country.

In response, PS Nxumalo acknowledged the concerns raised by the senate president. He assured that the main aim of the Bill was to ensure there was, indeed, proper legislation in place to regulate both NGOs and churches in the country. Pertaining to the NGOs, Nxumalo said the lack of a legislation governing NGOs, was an anomaly. He said the ministry was in the process of establishing a unit to monitor registration and governing NGOs. He also stated that the legislation would also provide for de-registration of churches and NGOs that contravened the laws of the country.

“The legislation will also authorise the ministry to monitor the operations and de-register churches and organisations that were pushing mandates that were not in line with the laws of the country,” he said. While making her presentation on the proposed Bill, Under Secretary (US) Nompumelelo Dlamini said as mandated by Legal Notice No. 25 of 2009 and Legal Notice No. 185 of 2015, the ministry was granted authority to regulate and oversee religious affairs and NGOs in the country.

Funding

Nomphumelelo said previously, the ministry had an NGO Policy of 2005, however, at the time, government was considering assisting NGOs with funding but over time, government changed its priorities due to fiscal constraints. She mentioned that currently, there was no legislation regulating NGOs or NPOs. She said there was also no clear registration policy for the voluntary organisations. “Those that do register, do so voluntarily and it is done at the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Trade, under the Registrar of Companies department,” she said.
The US said for them, as a ministry mandated to regulate NGOs and churches; this was an embarrassment because they did not even have the statistics on how many voluntary organisations were registered as well as how they executed their mandates.

Adding, she noted a concern of mushrooming of NGOs in the country which was of concern to government, as some of the organisations did not conduct themselves well while some were pushing negative mandates. “We can all recall that during the unprecedented civil unrest, there were allegations made that some of the NGOs were being used to finance violence and terrorism in the country,” said the US.

She however acknowledged that there was in place, a governing body in the form of the Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations (CANGO), however, CANGO has been regulating NGOs in the country without a proper policy in place. She said those that were regulated by CANGO voluntarily affiliated with the organisation, while many others were not under them and not regulated. The US said as a ministry, they have noted a recent increase in money laundering and financing of terrorism and this was happening through some of the unregulated NGOs.

She said despite the efforts put in place by the Ministry of Finance pertaining to preventing money laundering as the Ministry of Home Affairs, they were not privy to how many NGOs were there in the country or where the funding came from. “This promotes money laundering and financing of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction in the country as well as outside the country,” she said.

The US further mentioned that there was no effective cooperation and coordination between NGOs and government as some NGOs had access to information that government did not have access to, which could be a threat to national security. She emphasised on the importance of ensuring proper coordination in order to have access to and share information between government and NGOs.

Prioritised

She said in an attempt to curb the challenges stated above, government through the Ministry of Home Affairs, has prioritised the enactment of the Non-Profit Organisations (NPO) Bill. She said the decision to change from NGO to NPO was because NPO was all encompassing and included all organisations receiving and dispersing funds from various sources and donors. She said NPOs included all voluntary associations, charity organisations and foundations providing assistance to the nation on various levels.  She said among the objectives of the Bill, was creating a conducive environment to assist NPOs as well as eradicating duplication of efforts where a majority of the NPOs were focusing on similar mandates such as HIV/AIDS yet there were other gaps that needed to be bridged.

Continuing, Dlamini said another objective of the Bill was to establish an independent and responsible monitoring system for NPOs so there was effective regulation and accountability. “It is important to ensure that all NPOs are accountable for the funds they receive from donors and where these funds are utilised. Currently, we have a huge gap as NPOs are not accountable for the funds utilised,” she said. The US also stated that another objective for the Bill was to put in place appropriate internal controls, including appropriate systems to identify conduct which may involve money laundering and financing of terrorism to further ensure accountability from NPOs.

Objective

Further, another objective of the Bill is to promote donor and public confidence on NPOs and to encourage development of NPO conduct to ensure integrity and accountability as they execute their mandate. The Bill also seeks to facilitate a relationship between government and NPOs to ensure cooperation and a good working relationship for the benefit of the country and emaSwati, which is in line with the Constitution. The Bill will also establish a code of conduct for NPOs so that they could improve their self-governing. Currently, there is no code of conduct in place for NPOs.

The Home Affairs US said the ministry has conducted consultations with relevant stakeholders on the Bill who also made their contributions. The Bill was submitted to the office of the Attorney General at the end of January 2024. The next step would be presenting it in Cabinet followed by the tabling of the Bill in Parliament for debate and enactment into law.
Pertaining to churches, she said currently, there were three recognised churches governing bodies being the Conference of Churches, Council of Churches as well as the League of African Churches. However there was no legislation in place governing churches. “We are all aware of the conflicts within and among the churches because they are registered under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade forcing the ministry to intervene yet there is no legislation in place,” she said.

The US said there were other religions that were not affiliated to the recognised governing bodies and in the absence of the legislation, the ministry had begun putting in place a policy to govern religion in the country. She said the initiative would include a benchmarking exercise which would be conducted by members of the policy development task team as well as stakeholder consultations.

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