This Month in Church History
March 1992: Gaborone Botswana District
This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of the organization of the Gaborone Botswana District, the first in the country. The district was established on Sunday, 1 March 1992, and included the renamed Gaborone Broadhurst and West branches. Later that year, the Lobatse Branch was organized and became part of the district as well.
Kwasi Agyare-Dwomoh, who was baptized in 1990 and had been serving as president of the Gaborone Branch, was called as the first district president of the Gaborone Botswana District with Vryle (Vernon) Owens and Anthony Mokgare as his counselors. Brother Agyare-Dwomoh later served as bishop of the Centurion South Africa 2nd Ward and is currently serving in the presidency of the Johannesburg South Africa Temple.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been officially recognized by the Botswanan government the previous year, in June 1991. Five months after the district was formed, Elder Richard G. Scott (1928-2015) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the country for the preaching of the gospel.
The Gaborone Botswana District was dissolved in 1995 and the three existing branches were incorporated into the Roodepoort South Africa Stake. The Church continued to flourish, however, and the Gaborone Botswana Stake was organized in 2012.