IMBISA - New standing committee


IMBISA stands for: and it is currently based in Harare (Zimbabwe).

IMBISA was born in ... Every three years we hold a plenary session in which all the bishops from these nine countries are invited and are expected to attend. My first IMBISA plenary meeting was in 2010 in Pretoria. This time we met in Gaborone (Botswana).

We use two languages: English and Portughese so we need to have people available to translate during the meetings and prayers.

I was pretty involved at IMBISA earlier this year when a project was started to support free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. One bishop from each country was trained as an election observer. Being the only bishop in Swaziland (where I am apostolic administrator) I was asked to be available and support the project.

Before the end of the meeting we elected the new "standing committee" which will serve for the next three years. Bp Nubuasah SVD (born in Ghana) was re-elected president and Bp Lucio was re-elected vice president. It was a sign not only of a work well done but also of clear directions presented for the next three years. We all felt they should continue to lead us in this journey.

Looking at the photo above, nearly all countries are represented. From left: Angola, Namibia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique (again).