BY CHARLES LAITON
Chinhoyi Municipality has taken the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) to the High Court seeking $200 000 in outstanding rates and water bills for its mines in Mashonaland West province.
Through its lawyers, Warara and Associates, the municipality recently issued summons against ZMDC after several efforts to settle the matter amicably failed to yield any results. The parastatal is yet to respond to the litigation.
According to the Chinhoyi Municipality, ZMDC conducts mining business within its area of jurisdiction and as such it is obliged to pay rates and water charges and other levies to the municipality.
“Defendant (ZMDC) operates three different accounts under the names Alaska Country Club, Alaska Smelter and Refinery and ZMDC administration offices. The defendant defaulted in paying rates, charges and levies of such accounts from period of January 2017 up to February 2019 and to date, an outstanding amount which is due to the plaintiff (Chinhoyi Municipality) amounts to $198 387,” the municipality said.
The municipality further said on various occasions it approached the ZMDC officials demanding payment adding that at some point the ZMDC was given ultimatums to settle the debt, but nothing happened.
