Police suspect that the robbery was an inside job and
Criminal Investigations Department crack teams from both Harare and Bulawayo
have since been activated to investigate and track the suspects who are still
at large.
Police have said they were still trying to verify the
amount of money stolen during the robbery.
The gang of armed robbers is believed to have trailed the
Romicon Security cash-in-transit vehicle as it collected cash from six Choppies
Supermarket shops around the city, and pounced on it as it made its seventh
collection at the Parklands branch.
They fired warning shots and threatened to shoot anyone who
resisted. The Romicon Security guards
were disarmed before the gang grabbed the six trunks from the cash-in-transit
vehicle and loaded in a kombi labelled “armoured cash-in-transit vehicle”.
The seventh trunk was grabbed from a security guard who was
carrying it from the Parklands branch to the cash-in-transit truck.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul
Nyathi has urged security companies to step up security to avoid robbery cases
and recommended that movements should be minimised when security firms have
collected large amounts of cash.
Robberies have become more common. Last week, a 22-year-old
woman was shot dead during a robbery at Liquor Supplies at Ascot Shopping
Centre in Bulawayo after receiving two bullets in the head.
Thandolwenkosi Dube (22) from Cowdray Park suburb was a
cashier at the liquor outlet which the gang stormed and demanded cash.
On the same day, a man lost US$16 500 and a Toyota Belta
vehicle to two suspected armed robbers who lured him to Mbembesi Business
Centre through a phone call for a transaction.
The man was stabbed once in the back before the robbers
drove off in his vehicle. Last month, police in Bulawayo arrested Abednico
Ndlovu (29), Atkins Mahinzwi (36), Bruce Moyo (30), Zenzo Siziba (42), Kelvin
Dzumbunu (29), and Gift Mwale (38), in connection with a spate of armed robbery
cases committed between January and April 2021 in Bulawayo and surrounding
areas.
A 9mm pistol with a magazine of six rounds was recovered
from the suspects. The arrested suspects
mainly targeted service stations and homesteads before robbing the victims of
their valuables.
So far, the gang is linked to 14 cases of robbery in which
properties worth US$164 032, R890 and $50 000 were stolen. Herald
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