Zimbabwean Vice President Joice Mujuru has urged rural communities to initiate projects that generate substantial income and contribute to the development and maintenance of infrastructure.

Speaking at a rally in Mashonaland East Province on Saturday, Mujuru said it was time for rural communities to start contributing taxes that would lead to the development of infrastructure.

"The only way to ensure rural infrastructure development and maintenance is for communities to embark on income-generating projects that will lead to payment of taxes to government which will in turn be used for such," said Vice President Mujuru.

She said the government was working towards improving rural communities so as to attract investment and development in these areas to discourage rural-urban migration.

Mujuru said she had embarked on a nationwide tour of rural constituencies with a team of senior civil servants and ministers whose ministries are community development-oriented with the task of identifying and implementing development programs.

"Let's have empowerment programs here in rural areas and avoid the rural-urban migration. Our people should now be moving to rural areas but they can't do that if there is poverty. We need to improve the standard of life here to encourage this movement," she said.

She said the government had to embark on Operation Murambatsvina because of the increased number of social ills and vice that had become prevalent in some of the illegal structures.

"It was in these illegal structures that AIDS, rape and robberies were thriving," she said.

Responding to the residents' complaints over the poor maintenance of the road network in Chikomba, she said villagers should engage in projects like horticulture, poultry production and farming to generate wealth and eventually pay taxes.

She said the government was encouraging the empowerment of rural communities, particularly women, through poultry and piggery projects to ensure the sustainability of families and ultimately the whole nation.

"The poultry project should be taken seriously and we expect it to eventually lead to a poultry processing plant here at Sadza growth point," she said.

Source: Xinhua