Hundreds of churches in Nelson Mandela Bay are expected to finally get their land applications processed by the municipality, some of which have been waiting since 2016.
The municipality is trying to catch up on its huge backlog of applications from religious organisations after approvals were temporarily halted early in 2017.
Human settlements executive director Nolwandle Gqiba said this was due to the city now having formulated a church policy.
Gqiba said applications continued to pile up specifically around new leases and for purchase of land.
“We could not get into new agreements, and we are still facing a challenge as a department as much of the documentation is still with our legal services department.”
Gqiba said officials had noticed that some applicants had already invaded land and occupied it illegally.
“The process is moving and we are just organising the administrative issues,” she said.
Church leaders who have been waiting to have their applications to buy land approved by the municipality have welcomed the move.
The delays were a result of changes made to the Municipal Financial Management Act which meant land could no longer be disposed of at a nominal fee or based on whether or not the applicant was previously disadvantaged.
The legislation requires now that the municipality sell land at market value.
This meant the municipality had to change the manner in which it disposed of land.
At the time, the city was flooded with applications from churches wanting to buy land.
In Motherwell alone, there were about 360 applications, and about 250 in Wells Estate.
Explaining why officials decided to place the processing of all applications on hold at the time, DA councillor Nqaba Bhanga – who was at the helm of the human settlements department – said they had to decide on the criteria to process the applications.
Bhanga said the challenge was hundreds of applications in a single area.
“The problem was mainly around what criteria do we follow because there were so many churches wanting land.
“There were more than 1,000 churches in Nelson Mandela Bay that wanted parcels of land and we simply did not have the land,” Bhanga said.
This led to the establishment of a committee, which included the religious fraternity, to sift through the applications.
“We can’t have 1,000 churches or else we would not have land for other recreational facilities,” Bhanga said.
The churches that have applied for land include the United Congregational Church of SA, the Presbyterian Church of SA, the African Gospel Church, Rosedale Assemblies of God and the Acts of Apostolic Church of SA.
The United Congregational Church of SA’s Reverend Michael Sawule, of New Brighton, said the church noticed in 2014 that about five of its seven branches in Nelson Mandela Bay did not own the land.
He said this meant they could not make any changes to the church buildings.
“When we went to the municipality we found that the municipality does not want to give us the title deeds, which would be a certificate of ownership. Some of the churches were built in 1948.”
The church is now in the process of buying land in Zwide for church purposes.
“There has been a delay when it comes to us finally getting a title deed. We have tried to get the land but the municipality could not give it to us.”
Sawule said no explanation was ever given for the delays.
“We are trying by all means to get this land because there is nothing we can do on the land.”
Sawule said the church had plans to demolish and rebuild the United Congregational Church of SA church in Zwide.
“We would be happy if there is progress towards us finally getting title deeds because we have been renting for many years now and the rent is expensive,” Sawule said.
He said it paid R1,500 to R2,000 monthly for rent.
Presbyterian Church of Africa secretary in Port Elizabeth Makhwenkwe Msizi said it applied to buy land in 2016.