The High Court in Mutare has ruled that a mining syndicate linked to well-known war veterans attempted to use a recently issued "special grant" to muscle long-time gold miner Nomatter Nyarugwe off his legally registered claim, with Justice Isaac Muzenda condemning their actions as unlawful dispossession.
Granting a spoliation order the judge said Nyarugwe had been in "peaceful and undisturbed possession" of his Reunya Fortune 25 mining block since 1994, and the conduct of Chimurenga Mining Syndicate, Nathan Manyuchi, and Douglas Mahiya amounted to outright despoilment.
"Applicant has now settled on this claim for more than three decades; he cannot be mistaken about the confines of his beacons," Muzenda said.
The dispute erupted after the first respondent, Chimurenga Mining Syndicate, obtained a special mining grant from the Ministry of Mines in October 2025. But the court heard that as early as June 2025, months before the grant was even issuedthe syndicate's leaders visited Nyarugwe claiming authority over his claim. According to Nyarugwe, the respondents began attempting to take advantage of the special grant to chase away his workers, occupy his shafts, and seize ore.
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By August 2025, the syndicate had allegedly moved onto Nyarugwe's shafts and started mining. He reported the incursions to the Provincial Mining Director and to the police. After the authorities ordered both parties to respect boundary beacons, the respondents allegedly escalated their actions.
On 20 January 2026, they again invaded the shafts, and a week later, they reportedly chased away his employees.
The breaking point came when the respondents allegedly loaded a 10-tonne truck with gold ore from Nyarugwe's shafts. Justice Muzenda highlighted that this crucial allegation was not disputed: "The ore which was ferried by the first respondent was extracted from the applicant's shafts, this was not disputed."
In opposing the application, the respondents argued that the matter was simply a boundary dispute requiring a Surveyor-General's report and that they were operating within their allocated area. They claimed the case was "camouflaged" as spoliation to avoid the proper administrative processes.
But the judge rejected this, saying the core issue was forced dispossession, not boundary demarcation. "The cause of action is the invasion on applicant's mine by the first to third respondents without a court order," he said, adding that the respondents were "literally dispossessing the applicant of his claims."
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Muzenda found that the official beacons recognised by the Ministry of Mines, police, EMA, and Fidelity Gold Refinery confirmed Nyarugwe's lawful occupation, and there was no justification for the syndicate's actions. "I am therefore satisfied that applicant has managed to prove that he was in peaceful and undisturbed possession of the mining shafts," he held.
The court ordered Chimurenga Mining Syndicate, Manyuchi and Mahiya to "restore peaceful and undisturbed possession" of the mining block to Nyarugwe immediately and to pay the costs of the application.
