BULAWAYO- Security firm DDNS Security Operations, trading as Securico, has been ordered by the High Court to pay How Mine $675,000 after it lost 11.95kg of gold bullion it was transporting to Bulawayo during an armed robbery on October 4, 2022.

How Mine argued that Securico failed to provide adequate and competent security to protect the gold including failing to utilise an armoured truck while security officers had no panic buttons and some had no airtime to raise the alarm.

Securico challenged How Mine’s claim, arguing that the armed robbery was unforeseen and no human foresight could have prevented it.

Justice Joseph Chilimbe, in a judgement delivered on July 1, found in favour of How Mine.

The judge said: “I must take due regard of the fact that officially, both parties (How Mine and Securico) were alive to the risks confronting bullion runs, not least of which was the compromise of security arrangements.

“I must relate to a paradox emerging from the law and facts herein from that aspect. Securico as a public carrier was obliged, under the Praetor’s Edict’s strict liability, to deliver the consignment intact. It therefore assumed risk when it accepted the commission to ferry How Mine’s bullion under security arrangement which by Securico’s standards, were less than adequate.

“But the law extended a reprieve to Securico in the event that loss of consignment was occasioned by superior force. The resultant anomaly however being that the same insufficient arrangements were, according to the evidence given and arguments raised by Securico, contributory to the causus fortuitous. Does the question not arise then that defendant walked into a situation which it knew very well could arise? What then is the effect of this possible conclusion on the defence of vis major (unavoidable event or circumstance, beyond the control of parties involved) tendered herein?

“In its plea, Securico averred that the event was unforeseeable. In evidence, its witnesses accepted that robberies formed a well-known risk.”

Justice Chilimbe said the failure to trigger alarms and the Securico crew’s inexplicable failure to summon both the police and its own reaction teams bordered on negligence.

Securico, the judge found, set out to carry valuable cargo with “soft skin” plated vans, instead of an armoured van. The company was also well aware of the limitations of its fire power and “above all else, it had clearly and commendably ordered its personnel to preserve life (by not engaging armed robbers in a gunfight).”

Reasoned Justice Chilimbe: “That decision (to preserve life) was crucial to the evaluation of the guards’ response during and after the robbery. The question being; – where a carrier sets out on a dangerous enterprise involving the prospect of violent depredations, does it not in fact assume the risk of loss where it restrains its personnel from boldly engaging the despoilers? And does that risk not escalate where there are known security inadequacies? Including deployment of a soft skin van which the staid Mr Marko Mukazi (Securico crew commander) condemned as clearly unfit for purpose?

“… I reach the conclusion that Securico failed to discharge the requisite onus of proving the defence of vis major. How Mine succeeds in the main.

“Securico is ordered to pay How Mine the sum of US$675,000 and interest thereon at the rate of 5 percent per annum with effect from October 4, 2022, up to date of payment in full.”

Advocate Thabani Mpofu appeared for How Mine while Securico were represented by Romeo Chatereza.