FILABUSI – Gold miner John Pietersen is at the center of a malicious damage to property case that is currently being tried at the Filabusi Magistrates Court.
The Filabusi miner is said to have dumped his mining ore onto a disputed property at Royal Family Mine in Filabusi on July 27 2022 resulting in All Aflame Marketing suffering damages worth US$1,200.
He would later appear before Filabusi Magistrate Court. Pietersen has been remanded out of custody and has been answering to the charges ever since.
The circumstances of the state’s case are that Pietersen instructed the driver of his front-end loader to discharge his mining ore onto a concrete pad owned by All Aflame Marketing.
The complaint had begun construction of a store room and office at one end of the property.
It is alleged that Pietersen took no regard for this and he instructed his front end loader driver to dump his mining ore which ultimately damaged the complainant’s wooden shed and adjacent brick structure.
Pietersen is said to have denied wrongdoing on the reasoning that he owned the contested slab where the complainants property was damaged.
The complainants refuted his ownership claims, saying that in any case, if he thought he was the property’s legitimate owner, he should have instead applied to the court for an eviction order.
“He took the law into his own hands. If he owned it legally he would have taken the matter to authorities to get them to remove our structure,” complainants argued.
The Complainant reported broken brick works and damage to property worth US$1,200.
“The door frames might be recoverable, but the rest needs to be taken apart. He tampered with our activities and needs to answer for his conduct,” a source claimed.
Meanwhile, Royal Family claims are a Joint Venture under legal dispute. This comes after John Pietersen unilaterally abandoned the agreement due to a misunderstanding.
In the early hours of Pietersen’s dissident action, some Joint Venture members decided to cut their losses and leave the Joint Venture.
The remaining members of the JV are now assessing the impact of the dissident action on their business and considering their options moving forward.
It is unclear whether they will try to reconcile with Pietersen or file a lawsuit against him.
