IMBISA was officially founded in Pretoria, South Africa, on April 24, 1975. The IMBISA Standing Committee will be gathering in Manzini, Eswatini from 06 to 10 May 2024 and on the 8th of May 2024 we will have the official launch of the jubilee year, IMBISA at 50.
IMBISA is a platform, whose main objective lies in its mandate, which is to promote the spirit of communion through the best practices of each member country; it arises from the new collegial concept considered by the Council Fathers, which defines collegiality as a strategy for the efficiency of the Church’s ministry in Southern Africa. Therefore, IMBISA’s primary and constant objective has been the cooperation and exchange of updated information on pertinent situations in the region. IMBISA is composed of the following Episcopal Conferences:
Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe (CEAST),
Lesotho Conference of Catholic Bishops (LCBC),
Episcopal Conference of Mozambique (CEM),
Namibian Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCBC),
Conferences of Catholic Bishops of Southern Africa, which includes Botswana, South Africa and Eswatini (SACBC) and
Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC).
IMBISA has two official languages: English and Portuguese.
The highest decision making board in IMBISA is the PLENARY ASSEMBLY, which consist of all the Bishops in the six Episcopal Conferences within the IMBISA Region. From Plenary Assembly we have what is referred to as the STANDING COMMITTEE, which comprises of ten Bishops. Among these, we have the President, Vice President and the Secretary General, these three are elected at every Plenary Assembly. We also have six bishop representing the six Episcopal conferences in IMBISA Region these are also presented at the Plenary Assembly. IMBISA has one Bishop in charge of Communication who is also part of the Standing Committee. Hence, this brings the number of the Standing Committee members to ten Bishops. Thirdly, we have the IMBISA Secretariat, which has the responsibility of doing the day to day business of IMBISA reporting to the Standing Committee. The IMBISA Secretariat is composed of the Director, Coordinators of the Pastoral and the Social Department, Programs desk and the Finance desk.
The current headquarters of IMBISA is located in Zimbabwe, where the secretariat operates