Matobo Rural District Council has threatened to sue newly-resettled resettled farmers over unpaid unit levies.
Council chairperson Watchy Sibanda told the farmers on Monday to pay up to enable the local authority to expedite infrastructure development in the area.
“You have to pay levies so that we are able to bring about development in this area. We have had people complaining that the roads here are in a sorry state. But if you do not pay levies, then how do you expect us as council to deliver?” he asked.
Sibanda said the newly-resettled farmers had for long resisted paying levies to council claiming that they had been given the land “for free”.
“We did not want to take the legal route as other councils elsewhere have done, but if you continue defying us we would have no choice but to do so,” said Sibanda.
“If a ward pays in full, we move in and develop the road infrastructure in that particular area.” He told the resettled farmers that since they were living on a commercial farm, they were required to pay a “special unit levy”.
“Traditional leaders should help councillors in ensuring that levies are collected,” he said.
