Council, village heads on collision course

COUNCIL authorities here have expressed concern over villagers who are encroaching onto land reserved for schools’ expansion programmes.

Officials from Runde Rural District Council said the villagers’ activities affected the schools.

In an interview, Runde RDC chairperson Councillor Norman Sibanda said the situation was also being worsened by village heads who were allocating land to villagers without council knowledge.

“We are having a challenge with some village heads because they will not be aware of the boundaries that we have for schools and they end up pegging stands for their people in these areas,” he said.

Clr Sibanda said villagers extending their pieces of land for agricultural purposes had also affected the schools.

He said some village heads took advantage of any idle land to make allocations, which was against the law.

“We sometimes have idle land which will end up being parcelled by the village heads and this is done without our input,” said Clr Sibanda.

“We are, however, trying to have some meetings with the traditional leaders so that we iron out these issues.”

Clr Sibanda urged village heads not to parcel out land without the input of the committee which included a local councillor.

“They are just doing it haphazardly, so we hope with the meetings this will be a thing of the past,” he said.

In a recent full council meeting, councillors discussed the scourge affecting school land in the district.