A BULAWAYO Magistrate has ordered Umguza Rural District Council (URDC) to release a vehicle, which the local authority had arbitrarily seized after alleging that the driver had committed an offence of transporting firewood without a permit.
On 6 June 2026, some URDC officials, who identified themselves as rangers working for the local authority, seized a Mazda B2500 vehicle belonging to Churches in Bulawayo, an inter-denominational non-profit organisation based in Bulawayo, which was being driven by Fidel Dube, who is the treasurer of Churches in Bulawayo.
The URDC officials stopped Dube along the Nkayi-Bulawayo Road as he was travelling together with his family in the vehicle from their farm in Bubi District and informed him that he had been stopped for transporting firewood without a licence. Dube explained to the URDC officials that the firewood he was carrying in the vehicle was felled at his family farm in Bubi and it was intended for domestic use at their family home in Trenance suburb in Bulawayo.
Despite giving this explanation, the URDC officials ordered Dube to drive his vehicle to the local authority’s office in Reigate, where upon arrival he was instructed to lock the car and was issued with a penalty ticket and ordered to pay a US$500 fine for allegedly committing the offence of 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 of the vehicle, Dube visited the URDC offices in Bulawayo on numerous occasions seeking the release of the car and he was told that he must put his complaint in writing and he wrote several letters to the Chief Executive Officer of URDC demanding the release of the vehicle on the basis that the seizure was unlawful.
However, the local authority responded in a two-sentence letter stating that the impounding of the vehicle was lawful.
This then compelled Dube, who got a resolution from Churches in Bulawayo, to seek the assistance of human rights lawyers Prisca Dube and Sipho Moyo of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who on 15 July 2026, wrote a letter of demand to URDC demanding the release of the Churches in Bulawayo vehicle within 48 hours.
In their letter of demand, Dube and Moyo indicated that the seizure of the vehicle was not justified in terms of the Forest (Control of Firewood, Timber and Forest Produce) Regulations, 2012 (SI 116/2012) and the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, which provided the legal basis for confiscation of a vehicle transporting firewood. The human rights lawyers also indicated that the fine charged by URDC was excessive and not in line with the provisions of the law.
Dube and Moyo later escalated their interventions by filing an application at Bulawayo Magistrates Court on 24 July 2026, where they demanded the release of the vehicle arguing that the impounding of the car was illegal as it did not comply with the requirements of the law.
The human rights lawyers argued that the continued confiscation of the vehicle in unlawful circumstances was a violation of the Churches in Bulawayo’s constitutional right to property as there was no authority for its continued seizure.
The lawyers contended that the firewood had been felled at a farm in Bubi, which belongs to Dube’s mother and had been transported by him for his family’s domestic use in light of both the cost and unreliability of electricity supply.
The legal practitioners also argued that the by-law cited in the Penalty Ticket, being section 8 (e) of the URDC (Communal and Resettlement Land) (Land Use and Conservation) By-laws, Statutory Instrument 179 of 1996, regulates the collection or removal of firewood in communal and resettlement land within URDC’s jurisdiction and the firewood, which Dube was transporting was collected and removed outside URDC’s jurisdiction. The lawyers said this meant that URDC’s by-laws do not apply in Dube’s matter and hence it makes the seizure of the firewood and the vehicle illegal, as the URDC’s officials lacked lawful authority to seize it.
Dube and Moyo charged that in terms of the Forest (Control of Firewood, Timber and Forest Produce) Regulations, 2012 (Statutory Instrument 116 of 2012), firewood felled for domestic use does not fall within the scope of the regulations and transporting it does not constitute an offence. The said regulations, the lawyers reasoned, create an offence for transporting more than 0.5 cubic metres of firewood in a single consignment without a permit and hence only in such a scenario can the firewood and the vehicle be seized by designated officials. The firewood, which Dube was transporting, the lawyers said, did not exceed 0.5 cubic metres and the URDC’s officials did not prove this to the contrary despite his demands.
Churches in Bulawayo, Dube and Moyo said, had suffered harm as it is being deprived of its property, which is used for its activities.
On 12 August 2026, Bulawayo Provincial Magistrate Beverley Madzikatire ordered URDC to release the vehicle, which it had impounded.
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