The Sunday News
FARMER organisations have appealed to Government to exempt farmers who were resettled on undeveloped pieces of land from paying the newly introduced rentals.
The Government has come up with a new rental fee which would go towards compensating white farmers, who were displaced during the resettlement programme.
According to the new payment system, A2 farmers, who are commercial, will pay $3 land rental per hectare and $2 unit tax per hectare annually.
The $1 per hectare unit tax which the farmers were paying to rural district councils will now be collected by the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement.
According to Government, A1 farmers, whose plots average six hectares, would be charged a standard land rental of $10 a year and a unit tax of $5 a year, making a total of $15 a year.
However, Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) president Wonder Chabikwa said it was unfair for the Government to collect tax from people who were resettled on undeveloped lands.
“The law says resettled famers should pay for the development that would taken place on a farm they would have occupied but what if you find no development at the farm? Again, we have some people who were resettled in bushes so what development should they pay for?” queried Mr Chabikwa.
A farmer from Esigodini, Mr Trynos Nyoni, said the land levy was going to choke their farming operations.
“We don’t have that kind of money to pay for the rentals. The farming sector is facing challenges and where are we going to get the money to pay the rentals when we have not been paid for our delivered produce?” said Mr Nyoni on the sidelines of the ZCFU Indaba held in Bulawayo last week.
Umguza Irrigation Farmers Association chairman Mr Antony Dube said they were yet to get official information concerning the matter.
“We have not received the information and we just hear people talking that we are going to pay the land levy,” said Mr Dube.
Announcing the introduction of the levies, Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora said the rentals would also help Government raise cash for periodic land audits.
He said the money was meant to mobilise resources for infrastructure development in resettled areas.
Reports say from the over 300 000 resettled farmers, Government was targeting to raise at least $5 million every year from the levy for infrastructural development.
Communal land will not be charged land rentals.
Dr Mombeshora recently warned that those who would renege on payment risked losing their farms.
