Online Reporter
Moreblessing Ncube
A TERRIFYING gang of teenage thugs turned the quiet paths of Lower Gweru into danger zones, snatching bicycles and kidnapping schoolchildren in a reign of terror that shocked even a courtroom.
Mthokozisi Mbiba, an 18-year-old with a skinny frame and short kinky hair, was the only one caught after he and his brother Branny teamed up with Alfred Mpofu to ambush pupils from Shangani Secondary School, threatening them with catapults before locking them in a disused water tank.
One of the thugs would stand guard with a catapult, threatening to “shoot” the victims if they made noise or tried to escape.
Appearing in court clad in a khaki prison uniform and a striped red and white jersey, Mbiba crumbled as Magistrate Manuere slapped him with an eight-year prison sentence.
He sobbed uncontrollably, his earlier street bravado evaporating before the packed courtroom. Three years were suspended, leaving him to serve five solid years behind bars.
The gallery gasped as the sentence was delivered. Many had expected community service or a lighter penalty. But the court was not swayed.
“These were premeditated crimes. Not acts of impulse,” declared the magistrate.
Prosecutor Owen Mugari told the court that on 23 May 2024, at around 7AM near Blackwaters Farm in Fort Rixon, the trio began their attacks. Sizalobuhle Nkomo (17) was their first victim.
They knocked her off her Buffalo bicycle worth US$240, dragged her into the bush, and dumped her in a water tank for an hour.
Thubelihle Mathuthu (14), Mitchel Dube (15), and Rodney Nhlala Ncube (13) also fell victim. The gang made off with bicycles worth US$900 in total. Some were later recovered, battered and broken.
Terrified, the pupils reported the attacks to their school head, who immediately called the police.
Mbiba was arrested soon after and led authorities to the stolen bicycles.
Now behind bars, Mbiba’s tears came too late.
His victims are too scared to use the path to school again. And while his partners remain on the run, justice has caught up with at least one member of the bike-jacking crew that held a community hostage.
