Zimbabwe’s High Court has ordered allies of President Robert Mugabe, including the tourism minister, to leave a RioZim gold mine that they invaded last month, state media reported on Tuesday.
RioZim went to court earlier this month to fight off two lawmakers, including tourism minister Walter Mzembi from Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, who had taken control of its Renco gold mine, 300km south of Harare, in January.
High Court judge Hlekani Mwayera ordered Mzembi and others to vacate the mine and to stop interfering with its operations, the Herald newspaper reported.
Renco, formed in 2004 when Rio Tinto sold most of its Zimbabwe assets, produced 11,000 ounces of gold in the first half of last year when it resumed operations after shutting down at the height of Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation crisis in 2008.
RioZim said it had lost US$150,000 (about HK$1.17 million) in daily production during the stand-off and was unable to assert control over the mine.
In a statement issued earlier this month, RioZim said Mzembi had claimed he had taken over Renco because the company had not complied with Mugabe’s black empowerment laws, which seek to transfer majority shareholdings of foreign firms to locals.