Mbabane: In what could be seen as an unusual exhibition, a house of God has been listed in a local property market for sale something that has raised mixed feelings on citizens.
This comes after government’s regulations in bid to curb the spread of COVID-19 to restrict and limit the number of people in gatherings including church gatherings. In the recent guidelines issued by government, only four people are allowed inside a church, which only dictates that churches should resort to online preaching.
The church was posted on Wednesday afternoon on Ekhaya properties Facebook page. Ekhaya properties is a Real Estate Agent in Eswatini, based in Mbabane and was established in 2002. Established in 17 years ago, it has experience in the property market industry in Eswatini.
According to the Ekhaya Properties, the church building is located in Big Bend.
“There is nothing wrong with the building, the owner of the building would like to sell it” reads a comment by the property agent when responding to one Facebook user who asked why the church building was sold. The church building carries a price tag of E700 000 and is measuring about 1090 square meters.
Churches that belong to denominational bodies will usually not allow you to sell a property especially a church building instead of sealing it, it is given to another church or community to use it. Anciently, when a church struggled, another church in the same denomination will come and rescue it.
For churches such as Baptist and Pentecostal, local church property usually is owned by the congregation itself. Occasionally, congregations or portions of congregations of a church of the first type break with the denomination but claim ownership of the property. The property is rather used for some other projects other than putting it up for sale.
Sought for comment Bishop Samson Hlatshwayo of the League of Churches said it was the first time ever since he was born hearing this. Hlatshwayo said selling a church structure is not allowed according to his understanding because as far as he knows, the structure is built by congregants who put resources together and assist in the building of the church structure, therefore no one can be able to sell a church building.
In rural areas Hlatshawayo said churches are built on Swazi Nation Land (SNL) and cannot be sold. He highlighted that in the event a church has got challenges the structures cannot be sold but if they resort to close the church, the land is then returned to the chief of the area.
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