adminLeonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
VICTORIA Falls Municipality is moving to outlaw open-air worshipping through a proposed by-law that will see offenders being arrested. Town Clerk Christopher Dube told The Chronicle that open space worshippers, who are a common feature along the resort town’s major roads were defiling the environment and threatening tourism, hence the decision to ban them.
He said the local authourity was concerned about the proliferation of churches, mainly apostolic sects and Zionists conducting their services in the open.
He said some of them were indiscriminately cutting down trees.
Dube said the local authority had been approached by tourism players complaining about the state of affairs.
The Environmental Management Agency and the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority had also accused council of failing to carry out its mandate due to concerns on open-air worshipping.
Dube said they have since engaged churches and were erecting sign posts on all sites clearly stating that it was illegal to use open spaces for worshipping.
“We’ve a terrible problem with open-air churches that have sprouted everywhere. As much as we can’t stop people from worshipping freely, the problem is that these people are defiling the environment by cutting down trees and doing all sorts of anti-environment activities along the major roads,” said Dube.
“If they refuse we’re going to arrest them. We’ve briefed the police about the issue because we can’t allow people to defile the environment. The problem all along has been that we didn’t have a statutory instrument to deal with the matter, but now we’ve come up with a by-law which we’re working on and it’s almost ready.”
He said people should not mistake the move as a ban on worshipping but the municipality only wanted churches to operate from designated areas without disturbing the environment.
“Churches just like any other business have to operate formally. They should apply to use whatever space they want and people must be informed that there’ll be a church not for them to just take their equipment and start making noise. That’s not acceptable here in Victoria Falls. There are places where they can go and worship such as the stadium and hall,” he said.
He said there were some council officials belonging to the same churches and management had threatened them with dismissal if they defied the order alongside their congregations.
The Victoria Falls is a world heritage site whose natural environment should be protected.
Online Reporter