Umguza Rural District Council has released a vehicle belonging to Churches in Bulawayo, which it had impounded for more than three months over allegations of transporting firewood without a permit.
The Mazda B2500 was released on 14 September 2026 after Bulawayo Provincial Magistrate Beverley Madzikatire ordered the council to release it on 12 August 2026.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) confirmed the development on Thursday, 17 September.
The vehicle was seized on 6 June 2026 along the Nkayi-Bulawayo Road. It was being driven by Fidel Dube, the treasurer of Churches in Bulawayo, an inter-denominational non-profit organisation based in Bulawayo.
According to ZLHR, some officials who identified themselves as rangers working for Umguza Rural District Council stopped Dube as he was travelling with his family from their farm in Bubi District. They told him he had been stopped for transporting firewood without a licence.
Dube explained that the firewood had been felled at his family farm in Bubi — which belongs to his mother — and was intended for domestic use at his family home in Trenance suburb, Bulawayo, in light of the 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 instructed to lock the vehicle and was issued with a penalty ticket ordering him to pay a US$500 fine for allegedly transporting firewood without a permit, in violation of Section 8(e) of the URDC (Communal and Resettlement Land) (Land Use and Conservation) By-laws, Statutory Instrument 179 of 1996.
Aggrieved by the seizure, Dube made several visits to the council’s Bulawayo offices seeking the release of the car. He was told to put his complaint in writing and wrote several letters to the Chief Executive Officer, arguing that the impoundment was unlawful.
The council responded in a two-sentence letter stating that the impounding was lawful.
Dube then obtained a resolution from Churches in Bulawayo to seek legal assistance from 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 to URDC demanding the release of the vehicle within 48 hours.
In the letter, they argued that 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 confiscation of a vehicle transporting firewood. They also argued that the US$500 fine was excessive and not in line with the law.
When the council failed to comply, the lawyers escalated the matter, filing an application at Bulawayo Magistrates Court on 24 July 2026 for the release of the vehicle on the basis that the impoundment was illegal and did not comply with the requirements of the law.
They argued that the continued confiscation of the vehicle in unlawful circumstances violated Churches in Bulawayo’s constitutional right to property, as there was no lawful authority for its continued seizure.
The lawyers further contended that the by-law cited in the penalty ticket — Section 8(e) of SI 179 of 1996 — regulates the collection or removal of firewood in communal and resettlement land within URDC’s jurisdiction, yet the firewood in question had been collected outside that jurisdiction, in Bubi. As such, URDC’s by-laws did not apply, and its officials did not have the lawful authority to seize either the firewood or the vehicle.
On 12 August 2026, Magistrate Madzikatire ordered URDC to release the vehicle.
The council complied a month later, with Churches in Bulawayo taking delivery of the vehicle on 14 September.
“By defending the rights of faith-based organisations, ZLHR continues to stand for the rule of law and protection of property rights in Zimbabwe,” the organisation said.
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