Bulawayo city council has accused churches for causing the municipality headaches by amassing a total $2,7 million in unpaid rates and rentals.

The council also accused the churches for uncontrolled noise as well as self-allocation of stands.

The city’s finance director Kimpton Ndimande urged churches to settle their bills with the council.

He was speaking on Tuesday during a meeting between pastors and council officials at the Large City Hall. Ndimande said: “Churches in Bulawayo are owing to the city council $2,7 million and this is a lot of money. We have to work together as the 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.”

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.

The city’s valuer and estate manager Thabani Ncube accused the churches for breach of lease contracts:

We also have a problem of uncontrolled noise by churches, the use of the bush system and self-allocation of stands.- state media