Court orders Umguza council to release church vehicle seized for carrying firewood

A Bulawayo magistrate has ordered Umguza Rural District Council to release a vehicle belonging to a church organisation which the local authority impounded in June for allegedly transporting firewood without a permit.

Bulawayo Provincial Magistrate Beverley Madzikatire gave the order on 12 August 2026, ending more than two months of wrangling over the Mazda B2500 belonging to Churches in Bulawayo, an inter-denominational non-profit organisation.

The vehicle was seized on 6 June 2026 along the Nkayi-Bulawayo Road.

According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), the vehicle was being driven by Fidel Dube, the treasurer of Churches in Bulawayo, who was travelling with his family from their farm in Bubi District to their home in Trenance suburb, Bulawayo.

Dube was stopped by officials who identified themselves as rangers employed by Umguza Rural District Council. They accused him of transporting firewood without a licence.

He told them the firewood had been felled at his family farm in Bubi, which belongs to his mother, and was meant for domestic use at their home in Trenance in light of the high cost and unreliability of electricity supply.

Despite the explanation, the officials ordered him to drive to the council’s offices in Reigate. On arrival, he was told to lock the vehicle and was issued with a penalty ticket and a US$500 fine for allegedly transporting firewood without a permit in violation of Section 8(e) of the council’s (Communal and Resettlement Land) (Land Use and Conservation) By-laws, Statutory Instrument 179 of 1996.

Dube visited the council’s offices in Bulawayo on several occasions to seek the release of the vehicle. He was told to put his complaint in writing and wrote several letters to the Chief Executive Officer of the council arguing that the seizure was unlawful. The council responded in a two-sentence letter stating that the impounding was lawful.

Churches in Bulawayo then resolved to take legal action and engaged human rights lawyers Prisca Dube and Sipho Moyo of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

On 15 July 2026, the lawyers wrote a letter of demand giving the council 48 hours to release the vehicle. They argued the seizure was not justified under the Forest (Control of Firewood, Timber and Forest Produce) Regulations, 2012 (SI 116/2012) and the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, which provide the legal basis for confiscating a vehicle transporting firewood. They also said the US$500 fine was excessive and not in line with the law.

When the council failed to act, the lawyers filed an application at the Bulawayo Magistrates Court on 24 July 2026.

In court, they argued that the continued detention of the vehicle was illegal and violated Churches in Bulawayo’s constitutional right to property, as there was no lawful authority for its continued seizure.

They made two key legal arguments. First, the by-law cited on the penalty ticket only regulates the collection or removal of firewood in communal and resettlement land within Umguza Rural District Council’s own jurisdiction. The firewood Dube was carrying was collected outside that jurisdiction, in Bubi, meaning the council’s by-laws did not apply, and its officials had no lawful authority to seize the vehicle.

Second, under SI 116 of 2012, firewood cut for domestic use does not fall within the scope of the regulations and transporting it is not an offence. The regulations only create an offence for transporting more than 0.5 cubic metres of firewood in a single consignment without a permit, and only in that situation can the firewood and the vehicle be seized. The lawyers said Dube’s firewood did not exceed 0.5 cubic metres and council officials had failed to prove otherwise despite being asked to do so.

They also told the court that Churches in Bulawayo had suffered harm as it was being deprived of property used for its activities.

Magistrate Madzikatire upheld the arguments and ordered the council to release the vehicle.