Villagers throughout the country are being overburdened by taxes imposed by chiefs on their subjects.
There is an outcry among Chief Gutu, born Lawrence Chigariro, after headman Gadzingo summoned village heads to a meeting on Thursday and ordered each one of them to raise US$10 towards Chief Gutu’s Zunde raMambo.
Chief Gutu has 14 headmen under him and some of them have as many as 106 village heads. This means Chief Gutu will raise about US$10 000 from the tax.
The tax paid to chief is not accounted for; it is his personal money.
Headman Gadzingo confirmed the development.
“We had a meeting yesterday of village heads at Runyowa business centre to discuss and reflect on points from a recent gathering with the First Lady at Maungwa Secondary School. We particularly noted the cultural points she left us with. In addition, we also informed village heads of the US$10 that must be paid by each head for Zunde raMambo,” said Gadzingo.
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Chief Gutu became angry when Masvingo Mirror asked him to comment on the matter. He threatened the reporter.
“Yes every village head is paying US$10. What business of yours is it? Do you know the function of Zunde raMambo? What do you want with that information? I now have your number, bother me no more!” said Chief Gutu.
A village head who preferred anonymity for fear of victimisation said the money was going to be raised from villagers and because the smallest denomination in the country was US$1, it meant that every villager would pay US$1 resulting in far excess cash which would be unaccounted for.
Lawyer Martin Mureri said the collections were illegal. He said it was not the role of chiefs to tax villagers and carry out development but their role was to support development brought by the government.
The chief has 14 headmen namely Gadzingo, Makumbe, Nesongano, Ndahwi, Mutema, Mawere, Nerupiri, Mupata, Magombedze, Mataruse, Maburutse, Zinyemba, Denhere and Chisvino. The headmen oversee an average of 50 village heads each. One of the headman, Gadzingo oversees 106 village heads.
Chiefs are given agricultural inputs by government under the Zunde raMambo programme.
Villagers plough the chief’s fields. The chief then assists the less privileged, child headed families and the elderly with grain after harvesting.
Masvingo Provincial Chiefs Assembly chairperson, Chief Chitanga of Mwenezi said there was nothing amiss.
“I haven’t spoken to Chief Gutu over the matter, however I think the money will buy missing inputs from the Zunde raMambo programme. There is a fertiliser crisis among chiefs and Chief Gutu might be collecting the money to buy fertilisers.
“US$10 is a reasonable figure given that a bag of fertiliser costs at least US$35. The chief’s jurisdiction is also limited as many headmen have been upgraded to chiefs,” said Chitanga.
Gutu district development coordinator Chiedza Tafireyi didn’t respond to questions send through her mobile phone.
— Masvingo Mirror