The Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) church, founded by Prophet Shepherd Bushiri, said it had never any intentions to renew its contract to use Pretoria Showgrounds to host church services.
The church used the show grounds as its headquarters for years but was kicked out last week after the City of Tshwane re-acquired the property back from Tshwane Business and Agricultural Corporation (Tshwabac).
This follows the city’s decision that it had no intentions of leading the property to anyone including the church.
However, this week Bushiri’s ECG church said it had no plans to go back after the lockdown.
In a statement released on Monday evening, ECG said it was preparing to move to a Midrand property where renovations were already underway to accommodate the church’s headquarters.
“The ECG church would like to inform its members, followers, partners and the general public that it never harboured intention of continued use of Pretoria Showgrounds for its church services. The church used to have a one-year renewable contract with Tshwane Business and Agricultural Corporation (Tshwabac) which, this year, was due for renewal as early as February to latest June.
However, the church—even before the COVID-19 lockdown regulations were put in place—never made a move to renew the contract because the church had already started developing its premises in Midrand, Johannesburg, and was sure to move out of Pretoria Showgrounds,” reads ECG statement.
The church also boasted that it was one of the largest contributors to Tshwane’s economy, through tourism, saying that it was attracting over 50 000 people across the world.
It said the City of Tshwane benefited through accommodation, supermarkets, transport and the informal trade around the church, but it said due to their move, this would be a great loss to the City.
“We strongly believe that everywhere we go; we will continue putting in place measures to ensure that the community, just like Tshwane, benefits from our presence,” said the church.
SANCO, a civic organization, celebrated the news of ECG’s move from the Pretoria Showgrounds last week, saying that it was good that the property was back in the hands of the City of Tshwane.
In its statement issued last week, the organization said it was worried that the property was leased to a foreign-owned church that has caused havoc in the lives of many people.
