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Fidelis Munyoro
Chief Court Reporter
DS Mining Syndicate has been granted a prohibitory interdict by the High Court against a Kadoma farmer stopping him from continuing to force the miner off his land following bloody skirmishes over control of a mine located at Trafalgar Farm at Battlefields on the outskirts of Kadoma.
Zimbabwean law gives miners priority over farmers, with necessary safeguards for buildings and compensation for damaged crops, since the mineral rights are owned by the State.
In this case the farmer went further and tried to mine in the claims owned by another.
DS Mining, which was represented by Mr Shingi Ushewokunze, has exclusive mining rights of Trafalgar Mine situated on the farm owned by Mr Ngonidzashe Nyevera.
Mr Nyevera was allocated the farm in 2014 more than 16 years after DS Mining acquired the mining rights from Geodynamics following the signing of a tribute agreement between the two mining companies.
Mr Nyevera sought to evict the mining syndicate from the farm on the strength of the farming rights since the farm was allocated to him.
But High Court judge Justice Annie-Lucy Mungwari granted DS Mining the application interdicting Mr Nyevera stopping him and those he had hired to disrupt mining activities at Trafalgar Mine.
She ruled that mining rights take precedence over farming rights hence Mr Nyevera’s farming rights do not bestow mining rights on him.
The judge said the totality of the evidence in the case left the court with no doubt that there were skirmishes at Trafalgar Mine as alleged by DS Mining.
She said Mr Nyavera stoked the fumes that caused the disturbances when he sought to overstep the rights conferred to him by the letter offering him land for agricultural purposes and sought to venture into mining on the location which belonged to the mining syndicate.
“That he sunk two mining shafts and brought other mining equipment onto the land is equally damaging and puts beyond doubt his aggression from which the applicant seeks him to be interdicted,” said Justice Mungwari.
Sometime in November last year, DS Mining peaceful operations at the mine fell into jeopardy after Mr Nyevera and his hired hooligans interrupted the mining activities at the mine. They are now facing criminal charges at Kadoma magistrates’ courts for assault and malicious damage to property.
In this regard, Justice Mungwari ruled that DS Mining stood to suffer not only from disruptions to its mining operations but would continue losing its mineral resources if Mr Nyevera was not interdicted from continuing with these illegalities.
DS Mining, said the judge, could not sit back and watch while it was stripped of its resources and assets, noting that the criminal reports made had failed to deter Mr Nyevera.
“The exigencies of the matter, therefore, call for urgent action and employment of the extraordinary remedy of a provisional interdict which no other authority other than this court can award.”
As such, DS Mining had no adequate and effective remedy other than to seek the provisional interdict and in this case satisfied the court that it made out a case for the relief it sought.
Mr Nyevera through his lawyer a Mr A Masango had opposed the application for an interdict arguing that the remedy would be to refer the matter to the relevant authorities for a resolution on the boundary dispute.
But the judge ruled that could not be considered adequate in this case. The provincial mining director for Mashonaland West, Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement were all cited as respondents but were not opposed to the DS Mining application and would therefore abide by the court’s decision.
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