A Bulawayo Magistrate has ordered Umguza Rural District Council (URDC) to release a vehicle belonging to Churches in Bulawayo after the local authority seized it over allegations that it was being used to transport firewood without a permit.
The Mazda B2500 was impounded on 6 June 2026 while being driven by Fidel Dube, treasurer of Churches in Bulawayo, along the Nkayi-Bulawayo Road.
Dube was travelling with his family from their farm in Bubi District when URDC officials, who identified themselves as council rangers, stopped him and accused him of transporting firewood without a licence.
He explained that the firewood had been felled at his family farm in Bubi and was being transported to his family home in Trenance suburb, Bulawayo, for domestic use.
The officials nevertheless ordered him to drive the vehicle to URDC offices in Reigate, where he was instructed to lock it and was issued with a penalty ticket requiring him to pay a US$500 fine.
The alleged offence was cited as a violation of Section 8(e) of the URDC (Communal and Resettlement Land) (Land Use and Conservation) By-laws, Statutory Instrument 179 of 1996.
Dube subsequently made several visits to the council seeking the release of the vehicle and wrote to the chief executive officer arguing that the seizure was unlawful.
URDC responded in a two-sentence letter maintaining that the impounding of the vehicle was lawful.
The dispute later escalated to court after Dube, following a resolution by Churches in Bulawayo, engaged Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) lawyers Prisca Dube and Sipho Moyo.
On 15 July 2026, the lawyers wrote to URDC demanding the release of the vehicle within 48 hours.
ZLHR argued that the seizure was not justified under the Forest (Control of Firewood, Timber and Forest Produce) Regulations, 2012 (SI 116/2012), or the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.
The lawyers also challenged the US$500 penalty imposed by the local authority.
According to ZLHR, the regulations provide for an offence where more than 0.5 cubic metres of firewood is transported in a single consignment without a permit.
“The firewood, which Dube was transporting, did not exceed 0.5 cubic metres and the URDC’s officials did not prove this to the contrary despite his demands,” ZLHR said.
The lawyers also challenged URDC’s reliance on its by-laws, arguing that they regulate the collection or removal of firewood from communal and resettlement land within the council’s jurisdiction.
“The firewood, which Dube was transporting was collected and removed outside URDC’s jurisdiction,” ZLHR argued.
ZLHR therefore maintained that the by-laws did not apply to Dube’s case and that URDC officials lacked lawful authority to seize the firewood or the vehicle.
The organisation further argued that firewood felled for domestic use was not covered by the relevant regulations and that transporting it did not constitute an offence in the circumstances.
ZLHR said the continued seizure of the vehicle also violated Churches in Bulawayo’s constitutional right to property.
“Churches in Bulawayo, Dube and Moyo said, had suffered harm as it is being deprived of its property, which is used for its activities,” the organisation said in a case alert.
ZLHR filed an application at the Bulawayo Magistrates Court on 24 July 2026 seeking the release of the vehicle.
The lawyers argued that the continued confiscation of the vehicle was unlawful because there was no legal authority for its continued seizure.
They also told the court that the firewood had been felled at a farm belonging to Dube’s mother in Bubi and was being transported for domestic use by his family, partly because of the cost and unreliability of electricity.
On 12 August 2026, Bulawayo Provincial Magistrate Beverley Madzikatire ordered URDC to release the vehicle.
The ruling brought to an end a two-month dispute over the vehicle and the council’s decision to impound it over the alleged firewood offence.
