Crime Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Republic Police at the weekend successfully applied for a warrant for further detention for Courage Siziba, a suspected armed robber, rapist and car thief arrested in Gweru.
That application was granted by the Beitbridge provincial court but Siziba, an ejected border jumper from South Africa, is almost certain to appear before the Regional Court due to the serious nature of his alleged offences.
He will answer kidnapping and rape charge over and above a series of armed robberies that occured in the New Medium Density suburb off the Beitbrige Bulawayo highway.
Here he is accused of having raided the home of a single mother and robbed her of her mobile phone before force-marching a 13-year- old daughter of the same he later raped, allegedly.
He is understood to have asked the girl to join him and demonstrate the lock pattern of her phone he also sttipped her of.
He is also the main suspect of a robbery where a single shot was fired a few houses away from the same woman’s house at the residence of Holan Kasamula robbed of R2 500.
Siziba allegedly hit five other houses in the neighbourhood that 26 September night.
Siziba is also likely to clear another case of a robbery of a hospital employee stripped of cash and valuables during the same period.
But it is his robbery at Peter’s Motel Service Station that is most intriguing considering he sought employment there after being ejected from South Africa. Then he played a a desperate honest young victiim of the situation in South Africa.
He worked as a builders’ hand and later settled as a domestic worker for Mrs Mutasa who used to own Peter’s Motel.
When his contract expired at the hotel he began to do odd jobs for Mrs Mutasa who may have kept her in her house as a worker.
She would drive with him around but he studied her ways and looked for an opportunity to pounce.
He mapped his way as she got more comfortable around him and relaxed her guard, setting a perfect climate for Siziba who one day deliberately may have left a window open.
When she was relaxed, it is suspected he entered and stole her handbag containing undisclosed amounts of cash, two mobile phones including an expensive I-Phone and her expensive Jaguar car keys.
He left permanently but one day offered to return the stolen goods in exchange for the passord to the I-Phone. Siziba was cheeky enough to make that demand on a phone call!
He offered to leave her property at a railway line behind the motel but later decided otherwise.
During his stint at the hotel, he had fallen in love, but there was no reciprocation and he would persist visiting the attendant who stole his heart, albeit in vain.
On 26 September the criminal in Siziba got the better of him and he targetted the service station at the hotel.
That night he found the love of his heart on duty.
But having come for violent “cash works” he did not have roses but a gun.
He robbed the service station at 3am, came back at around 9am to drive away the Jaguar car later crashed in Zvishavane.
He smoothed his way through a well known security roadblock at Bubi but went dark at Rutenga where he is likely to have turned into dirt roads for Sarahuro to Zvishavane to avoid highway detection.
Prior to the robbery, during planning, Siziba would call people at the service station and ask casually who was on duty, most likely to know when it was easiest to strike.
The night he allegedly robbed the service station, the voice he used to propose love was hsed for the violent demand, and it was recognised.
And like all crime, he left his foot print in Zvishavane where he dropped a phone after crashing the Jaguar.
And technology and expertise in the Zimbabwe Republic Police set in.
Siziba is expected Monday to be arraigned in the regional magistrates court for his initial remand for what appears an open and shut case.
After his further detention application by police was granted, he is known to have voluntarily led them to indications of several crime scenes including the motel.
He faces a long time away in jail, while police get a huge pat on the back for a good job done.