Approaches High Court
By staff reporter
SIDE Electricals (Pvt) Ltd, the operator of Botha Gold Mine, also known as Kitsiyatota in Bindura, has approached the High Court in an urgent bid to block police investigations after a document obtained from the Ministry of Mines allegedly exposed serious irregularities in its mining operations.
The urgent application follows a long-running dispute between Side Electricals and three miners, Angel Mpofu, Mcpern Enterprises and Laird Enterprises who had been operating mining shafts at Kitsiyatota.
According to court documents obtained by this publication, Side Electricals closed the miners’ shafts on November 14, 2025, without obtaining a court order, effectively barring them from accessing their operations.
The affected miners subsequently approached the High Court, where the matter was heard by Justice Chikowero.
The judge ruled in their favour, finding that they had been unlawfully dispossessed.
“The court found that the miners had been unlawfully dispossessed and granted a spoliation order compelling Side Electricals to immediately restore possession of the mining shafts to them,” reads the judgment.
The Sheriff of the High Court executed the order and reopened the shafts.
However, Side Electricals allegedly closed the shafts again in direct defiance of the court order.
This prompted the opening of a contempt of court case against the company.Following the repeated closures, Mpofu, Mcpern and Laird filed a police report.
As part of the investigation, police sought and obtained a warrant of search and seizure to establish ownership and legality of the disputed mining area.
According to police, a survey diagram obtained from the Ministry of Mines revealed that the area being mined by Botha Gold Mine falls within Freda Rebecca Gold Mine’s Mining Lease 21.
The diagram, which demarcates surveyed boundaries, allegedly showed that Side Electricals had encroached onto ground legally registered to Freda Rebecca Gold Mine.
The police argued that the warrant was lawfully obtained and that the investigations are legitimate, necessary and in the public interest.In its urgent application, Side Electricals, however, challenged the legality of the warrant of search and seizure.
The company argued that the warrant is “grossly irregular” for being overly wide and vague, and for being issued to “any peace officer.”
“The respondents improperly issued the Warrant of Search and Seizure for purposes of purely pursuing personal interests of an individual who chose to abuse the criminal procedure process in order to obtain against the Applicant to use such adversely to the prejudice of the applicant,” reads the court document.
This publication also gathered that Botha mining company may have been prejudicing the state over inspection fees.
An inspection certificate seen by this publication showed that Botha officially declared an operational area of no more than 40 hectares for inspection purposes.
However, the Ministry of Mines diagram allegedly indicated that the actual area under operation exceeds 300 hectares.
The SI 40 of 2022 pegs inspection fees at US$150 per 5 ha which means the company only paid US$1200 for 40 ha prejudicing the government because it is operating on more than 300 ha.
Botha Gold Mine, is not only seeking to block a police search warrant but is also pleading for a specific, damaging paragraph in its own affidavit to be barred from public disclosure—a move legal observers say signals a deep fear that the document admits to illegal activity.
In it, Financial Director Ashley Z. Zulu states:“The Respondents are eager to execute this irregular warrant to the detriment of the Applicant and once allowed to execute, the information obtained will be adversely used against the interests of the Applicant. It is thus proper that an urgent order is granted to avoid unnecessary prejudice to the rights of the Applicant. It is difficult to then chase for compensation after the effect when such an action can be arrested immediately.”
Some of the affected small scale miners in Bindura, said the company’s intense anxiety over this paragraph being acted upon suggests the “information” the police seek is not merely confidential, but potentially incriminating.
The warrant in question directs authorities to obtain official mining coordinates, boundary maps, and registered ownership details for the Tunisia and Jamaica mining shafts from the Provincial Mining Director.
Sources close to the case suggest that Side Electrical’s desperation to prevent the execution of the warrant stems from a realization that the official state records will conclusively prove the company has been operating on, or claiming ownership of, mining blocks it has no legal right to—an act of illegal encroachment.
