The Rt. Rev. Modisaotsile Mothibi was the last minister anointed by the hand of the Prophet Lesomo Joseph Moswela of the Eleven Apostles Healing Spirit Church in 1967. He was 35, and happily married when the Marobela native was commissioned during Good Friday-Easter Sunday at the headquarters in Maun to head north to the village of Kachikau to witness the gospel of Christ.
He and Evangelist Otsile Osimilwe Ditsheko were among the first batch of Prophet Moswela’s foot soldiers in 1963. Ditsheko’s mother and elder sister (the author’s mother) lived in Kachikau and hosted the missionary. The first miracle Rev Mothibi performed was on Ditsheko’s nephew whose cured seizures caused lightning to strike in broad daylight. Villagers left the old ways and were baptized as new creatures. Barely a year after his maiden entry, the church was competing evenly with St. John’s and Spiritual Healing – entities of the earlier prophets: Christina Mokotuli Nku and Motswasele Mokaleng. Collectively, the three affirm the apostolic orientation of the African Independent Church family, unlike the other branch known as the Zionist stock.
Reverend Mothibi planted the church and hurried back to his family in Francistown whereupon, he was ordered to return to the district now known as Chobe in the town of Kasane to convert more followers. For a man who had been a police officer during a turbulent period in Rhodesia, Rev. Mothibi was a prohibited immigrant in the northern neighbour but having spent a month in Pandamatenga en route to Francistown due to scarcity of transport, Rhodesia offered a smoother pathway into Kasane.
Obedience to spiritual leaders was the rule of thumb back then, and Rev. Mothibi devised a way to return to Chobe without proffering an excuse to Prophet Moswela. He jumped the fence near Matsiloje border post after connecting with an officer across the border. He found his ride ready which took him to Bulawayo. He rode the train across the land he should not step foot on, and another officer was ready to pick him up from the train station at Victoria Falls without a trace to the Rhodesian authorities that could jeopardize his life. These were the days when people said “yes” and “no” in their literal meanings and could not be confused for other interpretations.
“He made sure that we crossed the border at lunchtime when the immigration officers were not manning the gate,” the nonagenarian explains with a chuckle in his voice.
The first person he encountered near the old Kasane airport adjacent to the Zimbabwean border post was Ditsheko’s younger sister on New Year’s Eve. She took him to where an assembly of ma-Eleven welcomed 1969 in style. These were some of the people he converted in Kachikau the previous year, who came to Kasane for prospects of jobs in the booming town of tourism. He was at home among his converts who were going to be his foot soldiers to spread the good news to the lost souls. The church grew in leaps and bounds. Prophet Moswela died in 1972 in Francistown and was buried there. The succession plan was never doubted that Bishop Baathodi Monyatsi was the leader. He was the helmsman for 25 years until his demise in 1997. The first minister he ordained was Ditsheko in 1986, who had remained an evangelist since 1963.
Thus, when the International General Secretary of the Organization of African Independent Churches (OAIC) in Nairobi, Kenya – the Right Reverend Samuel Mohono made an invitation to African leaders in 1984 to deliver the promise made in 1978 in Cairo, Egypt to the different regions of the motherland, Botswana was represented by Bishop Monyatsi, a senior citizen and semi-literate spiritual leader, who deemed it necessary to rope in the younger, educated Ditsheko who possessed a diploma in theology. It was the 1984 Nairobi meeting that nominated the 41-year-old Ditsheko to launch the Southern Africa regional committee of the OAIC as its founding chairman.
Many churches of the apostolic orientation answered the call to assemble in Gaborone where the OAIC Southern Africa was born and the key positions of chairman, secretary and treasurer were reserved for Botswana citizens. The OAIC – SR was registered in Botswana, which became the headquarters because it was the most stable country in the region. Rev. Mothibi emerged from the 1985 meeting as the founding treasurer, a responsibility he held for two five-year terms until he stepped down to pave way for younger ones to pick up the baton in the relay race of stewardship, not glitz and glamour, camera lights, flamboyance, an appetite for power, control, and authority.
“You were always around, my son,” he prefaces his explanation. “Ours was a struggle against our own governments across Africa to recognize our churches as fully independent. We didn’t like the practice of being treated like children at public events where the program was full of ministers from the mainline churches. Some of our churches even left our stable and associated with the BCC just to be treated better. But the BCC ministers continued to dominate because that is their organization. We served our churches and were not attracted to positions because of perks or wealth to gain by misusing the name of OAIC,” Bishop Mothibi elaborates, sounding concerned.
By “struggle,” Rev Bishop Mothibi (who rose to the bishopric in 2003) is referring to selflessness and unwavering commitment to getting the homegrown churches out of the rut of poverty by courting the government and international aid organizations to partner with the OAIC in developing the people, who in turn develop their churches. None of these elected officers drew an allowance from the organization that they planted and served with their time and resources. They funded their long trips, often outside Botswana, slept in classrooms like the rest of the followers during conferences, and ate what everyone was supplied as daily meals. Rev Bishop Mothibi shared an anecdote from his long-held records as proof of his statement about personal sacrifices to advance the mission of his time’s intercontinental Christian nonprofit-making organization.
“In his speech, O. O. Ditsheko said, ‘We came here to Lesotho using our money. That time, we were deciding to borrow ZAR50 from Rev Mohono for our fuel…’”
Today’s elected officials bear a fiduciary duty to the organization where the member churches in the coalition fund their travels, hotel accommodation and meals. Yet the same leaders do not display an iota of the level of commitment and selflessness to the welfare of the member associates. While today’s leadership emphasizes accountability and transparency, it is common that men and women who are enabled financially would find the possibility to explain how they violated the constitution to decide matters reserved for the conference to be anathema that should never arise.
What happened to the spirit Bishop Mothibi describes as servitude that thrived on selflessness that he and the stalwarts epitomized? Shouldn’t we be holding those that we are funding even on a higher moral pedestal than the likes of the true volunteers that were the generation of Bishop Mothibi? Observing corporate governance and its values of probity, diligence, fiduciary duty, transparency, and accountability are a must. The bar is even higher amidst enactments to prevent the proliferation of money laundering crimes, and other common financial vices among religious organizations nowadays. Or we are sitting on a ticking timebomb about to explode in our faces with errant leaders who don’t fancy being questioned. But the power has always been in the hands of the masses! We, alone, can breed fertile ground for corruption with our inaction. Are you them?
*The author is Head of New Temple of the New Jerusalem, an associate member in good standing of the OAIC Botswana Chapter
