adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
MANGWE Rural District Council is taking legal action against A2 farmers and miners operating in the area who owe the council rates for the year 2013.
The local authority will start acting against defaulters at the beginning of next month. Speaking at a full council meeting recently, Mangwe RDC’s Chief Executive Officer Nketha Mangoye Dlamini said efforts by the council’s debt collection team to recover the money last year were fruitless.
“We created a debt collecting team in the fourth quarter of last year in a bid to recover our outstanding monies from A2 farmers and miners. Unfortunately the response has been poor which leaves us with no option but to take legal action against our debtors in accordance with Section 151 Chapter 29 of the RDC Act,” said Dlamini.
He said the council would engage debt collectors for those with huge debts while a law firm will be engaged to write warning letters to the rest of the debtors.
Dlamini said some farmers were purposely defaulting on making their payments. A2 farmers from the district recently complained that the unit tax charge of $2 per hectare was beyond their reach as their production levels were low. The farmers alleged their failure to service the council accounts was a result of the low farm production. Mangwe RDC has also been struggling to collect rates from miners operating in the district as most of them are not registered.
A number of the registered miners are recording low production levels as they are operating without proper equipment. Dlamini said the local authority was struggling to clear its debts because of non payment of rates. He said in November last year, the council collected 25 percent of the expected $2,4 million budget.
Online Reporter