A US$500 firewood fine imposed by Umguza Rural District Council (URDC) has backfired after a Bulawayo court ordered the local authority to surrender a vehicle it had seized from an inter-denominational church organisation.
Churches in Bulawayo was left without its Mazda B2500 for more than two months after council officials seized it from the organisation’s treasurer, Fidel Dube, accusing him of transporting firewood without a permit.
But the council’s attempt to enforce the fine suffered a major setback when Bulawayo Provincial Magistrate Beverley Madzikatire ordered the vehicle released on August 12.
The saga started on June 6 when council officials identifying themselves as rangers stopped Dube along the Nkayi-Bulawayo Road as he travelled with his family from their farm in Bubi District.
They accused him of transporting firewood illegally.
Dube told the officials the wood had been cut at his family farm and was being taken to their home in Trenance, Bulawayo, for domestic use.
The explanation did not save him.
He was ordered to drive the vehicle to URDC offices in Reigate, where he was told to lock it up and was handed a penalty ticket demanding US$500.
The council cited Section 8(e) of its Communal and Resettlement Land (Land Use and Conservation) By-laws, Statutory Instrument 179 of 1996.
Dube repeatedly returned to the council demanding his vehicle, but his efforts yielded little.
He also wrote several letters to the council’s chief executive officer insisting that the seizure was unlawful.
According to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), the council dismissed his complaint in a terse two-sentence response declaring that the impoundment was lawful.
That forced Churches in Bulawayo to seek legal intervention.
ZLHR lawyers Prisca Dube and Sipho Moyo issued the council with a 48-hour demand on July 15 for the immediate release of the vehicle.
They argued that the council had overreached, pointing out that the by-law relied upon by URDC governed the collection and removal of firewood from communal and resettlement land within its jurisdiction.
The firewood in question, they said, had been collected from a farm in Bubi District, outside URDC’s jurisdiction.
The lawyers also challenged the basis of the US$500 fine, arguing that the Forest (Control of Firewood, Timber and Forest Produce) Regulations, 2012, did not make the transportation of firewood for domestic use an offence in the circumstances of Dube’s case.
They said the regulations only criminalised transporting more than 0.5 cubic metres of firewood in a single consignment without a permit.
The consignment carried by Dube did not exceed that threshold, they argued.
“The continued confiscation of the vehicle in unlawful circumstances was a violation of the Churches in Bulawayo’s constitutional right to property,” the lawyers said.
They further argued that URDC officials had failed to prove that the firewood exceeded the statutory threshold, despite Dube demanding evidence to justify the seizure.
The lawyers took the battle to court on July 24, seeking an order compelling URDC to release the vehicle.
They argued that the council had no lawful basis to continue holding the organisation’s property, which was used in its activities.
They also told the court that the firewood was intended for domestic use because of the “cost and unreliability of electricity supply”.
Magistrate Madzikatire subsequently ordered URDC to release the vehicle on August 12, effectively bringing the council’s US$500 firewood enforcement saga to an end.
