The registration will serve as part of an accreditation process to determine the eligibility of churches to access land and municipal facilities.
This follows discussions which took place at the Religious Summit held in December, where religious leaders raised their difficulties in acquiring land for their churches.
Accreditation will provide the EMM with an indication of whether a religious formation meets the basic criteria to bid for council-owned land.
Mr Themba Gadebe, the EMM’s spokesperson, said accreditation of churches will ensure the optimisation of resources by streamlining processes that will lead to proper land management. This will further ensure accountability.
He said accredited churches will distinguish themselves from non-accredited churches and will have the advantage of being eligible to obtain land through the bidding process.
“The accredited churches will qualify to be prioritised for use of municipal facilities as a place of worship and the accreditation is free of charge,” said Mr Gadebe.
Religious leaders can obtain and submit application forms for accreditation at their nearest customer care area offices.
The forms will be collected from these offices by the health and social development department. Feedback will be given to the applicants after the database has been formed.
The accreditation process runs until October 10, 2014.
