Churches owe BCC $2,7m in rates arrears

Pamela ShumbaSenior Reporter 

BULAWAYO churches owe the  Bulawayo City Council RTGS$2, 7 million in unpaid rates and rentals, the city’s finance director Mr Kimpton Ndimande said on Tuesday.

Speaking during a meeting between pastors and council officials at the Large City Hall, Mr Ndimande said the local authority wants to recover money owed by various religious institutions. 

He pleaded with church leaders to settle their dues or approach the city council with payment plans.

“Churches in Bulawayo are owing the city council $2,7 million and this is a lot of money. We have to work together as council and the church. This is your city and churches have to have an input into how we run it. We have to meet halfway. This means the churches have to do their part and the council also does its part, which is service delivery,” said Mr Ndimande.

The city’s valuer and estate manager Mr Thabani Ncube said the high default rate by churches was one of the council’s major challenges.

“One of our challenges is high default rate by churches, non-compliance with terms and conditions of their leases, erection of unauthorised structures among others. We also have a problem of uncontrolled noise by churches, the use of the bush system and self-allocation of stands,” said Mr Ncube.

He said the city council was overwhelmed with applications for stands by churches, with an average of 40 applications being handled per month.

Zimbabwe Christian Ministries Association president Bishop Christopher Choto acknowledged that most churches owe the city council huge sums of money and attributed that to economic challenges.

He said they were trying to encourage churches to pay and also come up with strategies such as income generating projects that will help them raise money to settle their bills.

“Churches had a lot of questions concerning allocation of stands, the council’s rules and regulations and many other issues that affect them. One of the major concerns is unfairness on the allocation of church stands. 

“Some churches feel that stands are being given to a few established churches while upcoming ministries are being side-lined. We’re happy that most of the issues have been clarified,” said Bishop Choto.

“We’re also working with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which has availed funds to help churches raise money to start projects. We want to move away from the dependency syndrome,” he said. 

— @pamelashumba1 

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