adminLovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
LAND surveyors contracted by the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement have downed tools demanding to be paid their dues for the work they have carried out so far.
Surveyors who spoke on condition of anonymity said the situation is not peculiar to Midlands alone but is countrywide and vowed to continue with their industrial action until they have received their dues.
“We want to continue with our work but the problem is that we haven’t been paid for the past three months. The government should understand our plight because we’ve overheads to take care of and as such we can’t continue to work for nothing,” said a surveyor who refused to be named for professional reasons.
Provincial Lands Officer for Midlands, Joseph Shoko confirmed the development and blamed the impasse on the late disbursement of funds from treasury.
“It’s not a question of the ministry (of Lands and Rural Resettlement) failing to pay because we’ve a budget allocated to pay the surveyors but it’s the issue of money not being released on time from central government. As soon as the funds are availed to us we’ll pay them,” he said.
Shoko said farmers were contracting their own surveyors who would then be monitored by his ministry.
He said of the more than 1,200 farms which were acquired for resettlement in the province, only 400 had been surveyed, a situation which has delayed the issuance of A1 land permits to some farmers.
Meanwhile, the Midlands lands officer said the province will issue 500 A1 settlement permits before end of November.
Said Shoko: “We want to issue at least 500 A1 settlement permits by the end of November but the only hindrance is the need to go and make physical verifications on some of the farms.
“This is because some people have changed farms while some have extended their boundaries and all this needs to be looked into before we can issue the documents.”
derick.khumalo