The residents of Gezira Residential Area in the Munuki neighbourhood of Juba City and the Government of Central Equatoria State on Wednesday rubbished the Episcopal Church of South Sudan’s land-grabbing allegations against the government.
On Sunday, Rev. Paul Samuel Paul, Parish Priest of St. Stephen Episcopal Church in Munuki, accused Central Equatoria State of demolishing church buildings in an attempt to seize church land.
Speaking to congregants, Paul condemned the state government’s recent demarcation of the property as unlawful. He said the church, established in 1965, was granted the land in 1987 by the then-Regional Ministry of Housing and Utilities. The plot, No. 1567 in Block B, covers 95,200 square meters.
Cecilia Beneth, a resident of Gezira and immediate neighbour to the church, accused the church leaders of trying to use the church to acquire the land for their benefit.
“The church is for everyone, and it has no problem; it is we, the people, who are at fault, and the pastors that are brought here are taking the church as a business,” she explained. “It is known that this place is for the residents of the Gezira residential area, but now the people who are the leaders, like the parish priest, are the ones who want to do business in the name of the church in this place. We are the church, we brought them here.”
“The issue stems from a problem between Bishop Elinana Ngalamu and Bishop Paul Yugusuk, and they found it as a way of playing a political game to consider this place as a land belonging to the church,” Beneth added.
For his part, Benjamin Bali Simon, Chairperson of Gezira residential area, explained how the church came into existence in his residential area.
The community of the Gezira residential area was the one who built this church. Initially, they were praying under a tree, but then the community decided to build a church. Later, they wrote to the administration of the Episcopal Church to send them a pastor to help them in pastoral work, and when the pastor came, the number of believers started to increase,” he explained. “Later, a Bishop called Elinana Ngalamu saw that the number of Christians was increasing, and the place (land) where the Christians were praying belonged to someone. The Christians decided to look for a place in the Dar es Salam residential area where even the bishop (Ngalamu) blessed the foundation stone. However, they could not build the church because their building materials were being stolen, and so they decided to return and started praying here.”
“When they (church) returned, the authorities decided that the church should compensate the people whose land they (church) had taken, but they could not compensate the people behind, and the church decided to process documents for the land behind our backs,” Bali added.
He said that even the plot number on the map that the church claims is the authentic one is a forged document.
Meanwhile, David Morbe Aquilino, the Central Equatoria State Minister of Lands, Housing and Public Utilities, denied all the allegations levelled against him by the Rev. Paul, saying the process of opening roads was done at the request of the residents and the state government only went to witness it.
“There were a lot of allegations that the minister came with the National Security and opened roads and demolished a church building. This was on the request of the residents, and the government came and witnessed the process. We did not bring National Security, and we did not demolish a church. This is not true,” Morbe said. “He (priest) said the Christians were caught by surprise. I remember when the minister came here, the residents welcomed us with brooms and mingling sticks with songs and dances that services are coming to their area, and in that committee, many officials spoke, and it was all documented.”
“The priest said he approached the minister, who told him that he had come with the orders from the governor. This person (priest) is a liar, a person who is not honest with himself. How can he be honest to God if he is not honest to himself?” Minister Morbe added.
However, Radio Tamazuj could not independently verify who is telling the truth, as we did not see the official land titles.