Government takes steps to regulate churches

MBABANE – Government has taken a major step towards regulating churches in the country.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has invited all religious institutions to a national stakeholders meeting to discuss the development of a policy that will govern their operations.

The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 14, 2025, at the Commerce Auditorium, beginning at 9:30am.

The ministry says the meeting aims to engage a diverse range of faith communities and collect insights that will help shape the proposed policy.

Acting Principal Secretary Gugu Shabangu said the initiative marks the beginning of efforts to establish an inclusive framework that recognises and respects the country’s diverse religious landscape.

“This is an important moment for all faith-based organisations to share their experiences and perspectives so that we can develop a policy that reflects Eswatini’s values of unity, tolerance and accountability,” she said.

The ministry has invited representatives from all major religious groups, including the League of African Churches, Eswatini Conference of Churches, Council of Churches, Church Forum, Zion Christian Church (ZCC), Assemblies of God, Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Muslim community, Bahá’í Faith, Hindu community, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Rastafarians, traditionalists/animists and Jewish community, among others.

This development follows growing calls from church leaders and legal experts for the government to create a specific legal framework to register and regulate churches.

For years, religious institutions in Eswatini have been registered under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade as non-profit making Associations (NPOs) by  the registrar of companies, using Section 17 of the Companies Act of 2009.

However, confusion has persisted over the classification of churches as companies, an issue that came under the spotlight following court cases such as that of the Metropolitan Evangelical Church International, where the High Court declared that its directors had been unlawfully appointed under company laws.

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