By SIMBARASHE SITHOLE

FOUR Shamva gold miners were yesterday fined $300 each by Bindura provincial magistrate Tinashe Ndokera for setting their employer’s shed ablaze in a dispute over gold.

Ranganai Bvumbu (58), Tobias Masiya (36), Tinashe Mavhu and Dzikamai Kagonda, all from Annandale
Farm, Shamva — were fined for malicious damage to property after trial.

Failure to pay the $300 fine would attract a 20-day jail term for each.

Prosecutor Vincent Marunya told the court that on October 25, the quartet stormed Kadisi Mining Syndicate offices in Shamva looking for their employer, Fore Joana (47), whom they accused of duping them of huge sums of money realised from the sale of gold.

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They shouted at Joana before uprooting a pole and grass shed on the mine.

In a fit of rage, Kagonda set the shed on fire and went away.

Joana subsequently filed a police report, leading to their arrest.

In their defence, the quartet said the fire was caused by juju, which they said they had sought from a sangoma in Nyamapanda to boost their business.

The magistrate did not take their defence and convicted them.