By Rex Mphisa
RESIDENTS of Dulibadzimu are panicking after cheeky armed robbers struck three houses a few metres from where President Emmerson Mnangagwa officiated opening civil servants houses commonly called “Yellow Houses”.
With reckless abandon, the thieves made off with cash, phones and had the pleasure to fire two shots from their collection and casually walked away leaving residents in shock and awe.
The scene of the hit is 150 metres from the roundabout at the Harare turnoff, 500 metres from the Tshitaudze Police Base and about a kilometre from the Beitbridge Police Station as the crow flies.
The victims are a priest identified as Bishop Ncube and ordinary people living at Mutikani and Timothy Ndou residences who must be thanking their Gods noone was injured or killed.
But they lost their valuables that Tuesday night when police came 30 minutes later and never returned after that unforgettable midnight assault.
The officer commanding Beitbridge Police District Chief Superintendent Mesuli Ncube said he was nort aware of the robbery because he was away and not in Beitbridge.
“Sorry, I’m not aware. l was away,” said Ncube.
Elderly Betserai Murindi, called Magogo at the Mutikani home said she was awoken by a commotion at their residence around midnight and tried to run away.
Using a backdoor she walked right into the back–up team waiting for gangmembers already inside the house.
“Coldly they said ‘stop there old woman or we shoot’ before advancing towards me to hold my hand. The one who held my hand had a pistol on the other. They rained me with questions, I was bewildered. They asked where money was and said they were looking for a money-changer,” she said.
They spoke in Venda, Shona and Ndebele and each time lights of a car appeared they would retreat into the dark until the car passed. It was around midnight, said Magogo.
“One had a bolt cutter, a claw bar while a giant held a rifle and another had a pistol. They wore masks, and the walked back and forth with me until eventually telling me to go inside the house when they left,” she said.
She heard two gunshot sounds moments later but nothing was taken from her.
Her housemate Shelter Muchena lost her two phones and her husband was clobbered by the claw bar on the hand and head by the men numbering about five who entered the house.
“They wore masks but I was able to see a coloured one “cader” who was tall. He had a mask but sections of his face showed and his light complexion was catchy,” said Muchena.
Like Magogo she said they used three languages.
At Ndou’s house they attacked a man who came by taxi while they were busy.
A woman living there said the armed robbers wielding pistols fired two shots outside their house and two cartridges were picked by police who came later.
“They had an alteration with a taxi driver who shouted “Thieves” and they chased him before he fell into a house under construction. They took his wallet and dropped it where he picked it after they left,” said a woman identified as MaNcube.
After firing their guns the suspected robbers walked into the dark and a siren at a house in the direction they went was heard.