Online Reporter
Online Reporter
FORMER Cabinet minister Dzikamai Mavhaire says the recent High Court ruling pertained to road access control at Hillview Farm in Masvingo rather than the takeover of gold mining claims.
In his recent ruling following an urgent application by miner Robert Kagandi, High Court judge Justice Christopher Dube-Banda directed that unrestricted road access be restored to seven hectares of mining claims on the property.
Speaking after a guided tour of the farm, Mavhaire said boom gates installed on internal access routes were an administrative and security measure to regulate movement across private property.
He rejected claims that armed operatives or barricades had been deployed to dispossess miners.
Justice Dube-Banda found that the admitted presence of the gates amounted to a technical restriction of prior road usage under spoliation rules and ordered that unrestricted passage be restored.
Mavhaire said the ruling was limited to farm-road access and did not invalidate his property rights, transfer ownership of the roads or order the destruction of the security gates.
“The judgment dealt strictly with access to farm roads,” he said.
He said unmonitored farm roads had in recent years turned Hillview Farm into an open thoroughfare, creating security challenges for farming operations, workers and legitimate mining operators.
The lack of access control, he added, exposed them to theft and unregulated traffic.
Mavhaire also noted that an operational school is located within the farm boundaries.
He said uncontrolled movement of heavy mining vehicles, outside contractors and unverified visitors posed direct safety hazards to students and staff, necessitating a structured access system.
The access framework, he explained, was designed to monitor and identify people entering the property, ensure accountability among heavy infrastructure users and protect farm workers, miners and schoolchildren.
Its aim was to regulate movement on private land, not to deny access to legitimate mining rights holders, he said.
Mavhaire said routine security protocols had been misrepresented.
He claims that while a mining claim grants mineral rights, it does not convert private land into a public domain or relieve the property owner of the responsibility to maintain order and security.
Following the court’s direction on road usage, Mavhaire said the broader objective remained a cooperative, structured framework that would allow lawful mining to continue without compromising the safety, security and rights of the landowner and the local community.
