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Munyaradzi Doma, Harare Bureau
Mberengwa Rural District Council is on a collision course with miners who are not paying their $10 mining levy annually.

The authorities argue that they have tried by all means to make the miners pay the levies, which are meant for development projects in the mining areas.
Mberengwa RDC head of environment, Mr Robson Bhulabhula Shumba, said in an interview that some of the miners concealed information on their mines’ location.

“Some miners don’t want us to know where their mines are because they don’t want to pay the mining levies, so when we make those visits we mostly find workers, so it is difficult to make progress, he said.

“They don’t want that social responsibility, I think they are just used to that, they just don’t want to pay. We engaged them and even told them that they should pay.

Mr Shumba said the council had engaged the miners’ association to engage the defiant companies.

“At first they had an issue with the money we were charging saying it was too much, he said. We were charging $50, so we later agreed to reduce it to $10, but still they are not paying.”

Mr Shumba said the miners had also complained that their operations had been affected by the Cyclone Dineo-induced floods.

Mberengwa Miners’ Association secretary Mr Makumba Nyenje urged council to educate members on why they should pay the levies because most miners were not aware of their obligation.

“Filters and compressors were affected by the cyclone while some actually broke down such that our mining period only started in September this year,” he said

Mr Nyenje said members of his associaton just managed to sink their shafts later in the year, while the mining period had been reduced to five months.