High Court orders Zimra to release seized trailer

The High Court has overturned a decision by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) to confiscate a trailer belonging to Bluelight Logistics (Pvt) Ltd after finding that the company had not deliberately transported smuggled goods.

Justice Sunsley Zisengwe ruled that although the transport operator had been negligent in failing to verify whether goods carried by its passengers had been properly cleared through customs, the circumstances did not justify the forfeiture of its trailer.

The court ordered ZIMRA to release the trailer, registration number AGK 4794, subject to Bluelight Logistics paying a reasonable monetary penalty for transporting the goods.

The dispute arose after ZIMRA's anti-smuggling unit intercepted the trailer along the Harare-Beitbridge route during an operation targeting illegally imported merchandise.

According to court documents, the trailer was discovered abandoned near Harare, carrying groceries, suitcases, chicken cuts and other goods believed to have originated from South Africa.

Revenue officials suspected that the merchandise had entered Zimbabwe without payment of the required customs duties and subsequently seized both the goods and the trailer.

Bluelight Logistics challenged the confiscation, explaining that the trailer had been detached from one of its buses after developing a mechanical problem while travelling from Beitbridge to Harare.

The company maintained that the trailer had been left behind to facilitate repairs and that its employees were unaware that some of the goods had not been properly cleared through customs.

It argued that the luggage and merchandise had been loaded at a designated bus terminus in Beitbridge during the ordinary course of its passenger transport business.

The company said its employees had assumed that passengers carrying the goods had complied with customs requirements.

However, attempts by the owners of the merchandise to recover their property failed after they could not produce documents proving that the required duties had been paid.

ZIMRA consequently classified the goods as smuggled merchandise under the Customs and Excise Act.

On February 27, 2026, Bluelight Logistics wrote to ZIMRA's Regional Manager in Harare requesting the release of its trailer and explaining the circumstances surrounding its detention.

The request was rejected on March 4, with the revenue authority maintaining that the trailer had been used to convey smuggled goods and was therefore liable to forfeiture.

The company subsequently appealed to the Commissioner of Customs, but the appeal was unsuccessful.

Despite upholding the confiscation, the Commissioner acknowledged that there was no evidence establishing that Bluelight Logistics had intentionally transported the illegally imported goods.

The transport operator then approached the High Court, arguing that the decision was irrational, unlawful and procedurally irregular under the Administrative Justice Act.

In his judgment, Justice Zisengwe found that the evidence did not establish deliberate involvement by the company in smuggling activities.

"In my view, there is no proof that the applicant acted with intent when it transported the smuggled goods, particularly with regard to the uncontroverted fact that it picked up the passengers at an ordinary designated bus terminus in the ordinary course of its business as a public transporter," the judge said.

He also rejected the suggestion that previous customs violations involving another bus crew employed by the company automatically established criminal intent on the part of the employees involved in the present case.

"The fact that a different bus crew of the applicant fell afoul of the same provisions of the Act, without anything more, does not necessarily imply the guilty mind of the bus crew in question," Justice Zisengwe ruled.

However, the judge made it clear that Bluelight Logistics could not escape responsibility entirely.

He found that the company's employees had failed to exercise sufficient care by accepting goods without verifying whether they had been properly declared and cleared.

"However, there can be no doubt, in my mind, that the bus crew (hence the applicant) acted negligently in failing to verify that the goods had been properly cleared," he said.

Justice Zisengwe observed that the location where the passengers boarded the bus and the nature of the goods being transported should have prompted greater caution.

"The applicant was not entirely blameless given the place (Beit-Bridge) where the passengers had been marked up and the nature of the goods they had in their possession," he added.

The court consequently set aside the Commissioner's forfeiture decision contained in ZIMRA's final determination letter dated July 29, 2026.

Instead of allowing the permanent confiscation of the trailer, Justice Zisengwe directed the revenue authority to impose an appropriate financial penalty reflecting the company's negligence.

The matter was referred back to ZIMRA to determine the penalty and comply with the court's order within 14 days.

The judgment distinguishes between deliberate participation in smuggling and negligent transportation of goods that have not been properly cleared through customs.

While Bluelight Logistics succeeded in overturning the forfeiture, the ruling also reinforces the responsibility of transport operators to exercise reasonable care when carrying passengers' goods across Zimbabwe's borders.

The company will regain possession of its trailer once it satisfies the financial conditions imposed under the court's order.