The High Court has ordered former Energy and Power Development Minister Dzikamai Mavhaire to restore unrestricted access to a Masvingo mining operation after finding that boom gates erected on roads leading to the claims amounted to unlawful interference with the miner's peaceful use of the access routes.
Mavhaire, a prominent Masvingo politician and former Cabinet minister, has also been associated with the mining sector and was a major shareholder and board figure at Bikita Minerals.
Justice Christopher Dube-Banda ruled that Robert Kagandi had been using the roads leading to his Enfield Coronation 2 mining claims peacefully and without restriction before Mavhaire's intervention on July 13, 2026.
Mavhaire, cited as the first respondent, opposed the urgent spoliation application together with Hillview Farm (Pvt) Ltd. The Provincial Mining Director for Masvingo, the Minister of Mines and Mining Development and the officer in charge of ZRP Minerals Masvingo did not oppose the application.
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Kagandi told the court that he and his workforce had operated at the mining claims for more than 20 years before Mavhaire allegedly entered the property, erected barricades and tents and blocked access to the mine.
He further alleged that armed agents removed his workforce and took control of the mining claims.
Mavhaire denied deploying armed or machete-wielding agents and disputed the alleged takeover. He acknowledged, however, that boom gates had been erected on the roads, arguing that they did not prevent people with lawful rights from accessing the farm.
The court ultimately found that the admitted installation of the boom gates was enough to resolve the central issue.
"It seems to me that this case falls within an extremely short, narrow and simple compass," Justice Dube-Banda said.
"The essence of the issue at play in this matter is, to my mind, this: was there undisturbed or unrestricted and peaceable possession of the roads leading to the applicant's mining claims prior to 13 July 2026?"
The judge said Mavhaire's side did not dispute that boom gates had been erected on roads used by Kagandi to reach the mining claims.
"The erection of boom gates is common cause because it is admitted," he said.
Justice Dube-Banda explained that boom gates are designed to regulate access and could constitute spoliation where they unlawfully interfere with a person's previously peaceful and unrestricted use of a road.
"The main purpose of a boom gate is to control and regulate the flow of vehicles and/or pedestrians to access a road or in and out of secure areas," the judge said.
"In other words, boom gates restrict access to a road or property."
The court found that Kagandi had previously enjoyed peaceful and unrestricted use of the roads and had subsequently been deprived of that unrestricted access without his consent or due legal process.
"I accept that the applicant was previously in peaceful and unrestricted use of the roads, and he has been deprived of unrestricted use of such roads," Justice Dube-Banda ruled.
"And the boom gates were erected without following due process nor with the consent of the applicant."
The court therefore ordered Mavhaire, his agents, employees or anyone acting on his behalf to restore Kagandi's peaceful and unrestricted use of the roads leading to Enfield Coronation 2, which comprises six hectares on Bruceham Farm and one hectare on Victoria Farm.
The mining claims are located approximately 137 metres north of Coronation and about 500 metres north-east of trig beacon 475/1, Re Pegs 4697 and 4718, Masvingo.
The court also awarded Kagandi his legal costs on the ordinary scale.
The dispute was brought as an urgent application for a mandament van spolie, a legal remedy aimed at restoring possession or use of property or rights where someone has been unlawfully deprived of them without first going through due legal process.
The judge stressed that such proceedings are not primarily about determining ownership.
"The purpose of the spoliation remedy is to restore factual possession to a person who has been unlawfully dispossessed of property or subjected to an unlawful interference in rights that such a person exercises," he said.
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The court's enquiry was therefore whether Kagandi had been in peaceful possession or use of the access routes and whether that use had subsequently been unlawfully interfered with.
Although the respondents raised several preliminary objections, including that Kagandi lacked standing to sue because the claims were registered in the name of Enfield Syndicate, the court rejected the objections.
Justice Dube-Banda held that under the High Court Rules, a member of an unincorporated association such as a syndicate can institute proceedings on behalf of the association or fellow members.
The judge also rejected the respondents' argument that the case could not be decided because of material disputes of fact.
He found that although disputes existed, the admitted erection of the boom gates provided sufficient common ground to determine the matter without causing injustice to either side.
