The Anglican Church said it has managed to raise from its church members at least $1 million which it has used to renovate most of the church buildings which had been run down by the church’s ex communicated Bishop Nolbert Kunonga.
Most of the properties the church said had managed to bring to shape include the Pax House which it is leasing to the Parliament of Zimbabwe whose elevators had not been functioning for years.
Also renovated is the church’s main cathedral located at corner 2nd street and Nelson Mandela Avenue in the city centre .
Briefing journalists on the church’s developments in Harare Tuesday Reverend .Fr Paul Gwese, who was standing in for the church’s Bishop of Harare Dr Nicholas Chad Gandiya, said they are struggling to raise funds needed to renovate all the church properties.
“ At the perish where I am in at Saint Luke’s Greendale we have spent more than $70 000 on renovations and if one takes into account that we have more than 50 perishes within the diocese we are not only talking of hundreds of thousands of dollars but over a million dollars ,” he said.
“In other instances where you were supposed to renovate bathrooms you are not going to renovate but to do new ones .If you look at the main Harare Cathedral we have only done the main church only and we have spent an excess of $60 000 without attending to the walls.
“If you look at the Pax House just putting elevators which had not been working for the past three four years it has costed us more than $100 000,” added Reverend Gwese.
The Church has so far managed to repossess most all of its movable and immovable property, including schools and church buildings, across the country last year after winning the property wrangle against Bishop Kunonga, through the Supreme Court.
The property wrangle which lasted for over five years found the followers of Dr Nicholas Chad Gandiya resorting to worshipping in open spaces throughout the country after Kunonga engaged the police to evict them.
Reverand Gwese told reporters that their followers in the remote areas were finding it difficult to raise funds for the renovations of their churches which were also run down during the property wrangle period.
Reverend Gwese,however, said the ex-communicated Bishop Nolbert Kunonga was no longer holding on to any church properties.
“Not in the diocese of Harare. We are not sure if there are other properties may in Masvingo or Manicaland ,some remote probably properties that we were not able to get .I know in the last two months there was a story in the press that Kunonga had grabbed a property in Manicaland but after having checked with the relevant authorities there ,it proved that it was not correct, ”he said.
The Anglican Church has 72 properties, which include schools, commercial and church buildings, some of the properties had been reportedly turned into “brothels” and other dirty uses during Kunonga’s tenure.