Gwanda Rural District Council (RDC) is planning to take mining operators to court to recover about US$124,000 in outstanding debts after they allegedly failed to honour payment agreements with the local authority.
According to the council, the operators initially acknowledged their debts and agreed to payment plans but later defaulted despite repeated attempts to recover the money through letters of demand and further engagements.
The matter was discussed during the council’s Third Quarter Full Council Meeting, where councillors debated whether legal action would be the most effective way to recover the outstanding amounts.
Council vice-chairperson Mandlenkosi Moyo questioned the proposed legal action, saying the council had several ongoing cases that had failed to yield positive results while legal fees continued to consume public resources.
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“I have a concern about instituting legal proceedings against these people. Our legal cases are a lot, but we are not winning. Instead, we are using money paying legal fees, but we are not winning any of them. I have seen some have paid, so why can’t we pursue them to pay rather than take them to court? Because if we are taking them to court, we are then going back to the US$124 000,” Moyo said.
Ward 15 councillor Emmanuel Ndlovu said the council had already engaged the mining operators and agreed on payment arrangements, but the operators had failed to make the agreed payments.
“We came to an agreement with the mines, and they said that, considering the debt they had, they could only pay this amount. But at the end of the day, despite the agreed amount, they did not pay at all,” Ndlovu said.
He said further attempts to engage the operators had also failed.
“We went back to them to talk to them, but they still did not pay, which shows that they do not really want to pay. They began not answering their calls at all,” Ndlovu said.
However, Aldoniour Gondo, representing Buffalo Mine, said the debt had accumulated while the mine was involved in a legal dispute that prevented it from making payments.
“During 2013 to 2019, this mine was in dispute, so the law does not permit us to pay whilst the one is in dispute. So, we went to court and fortunately we won the case. Then the court instructed our tax authorities to pay the fee that was being owed during that particular dispute, which was about US$56 000. Then after that, the tax authorities appealed and the mine went into dispute again. So, if it is on dispute, we are not allowed to pay, so the credit has just increased to this particular amount,” Gondo said.
He said the mine had since won the case again and that the court had directed the outstanding amount to be paid.
“But fortunately, we won the case again, and the court has just instructed that they should pay the outstanding amount. So, the credit accumulated to that amount because it was in dispute,” Gondo said.
Ward 5 councillor Simbarashe Lisimati urged mining operators to respond to payment demands and communicate with the council when disputing amounts billed to them.
He warned that failing to respond could allow debts to continue accumulating, including through interest charges.
“Any document that comes with a demand for money should be responded to, regardless of whether you know or do not know the matter. But if a gentleman comes to my office to pay for, let’s just say, maintenance, please let’s sensitise our people, because the office does not stop billing just because you are in dispute. With no form of communication, it will continue to bill until it even bills interest on top, and it becomes hard when we get to this stage,” Lisimati said.
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