adminRay Bande Senior Reporter—
THREE robbers pounced on Victory Tabernacle leader and Zimpapers board member Bishop Trevor Manhanga’s Border Veil home in Mutare where they severely assaulted his wife and son before escaping with $800, a laptop and three cell-phones during the wee hours of Monday morning.The nasty incident occurred while the man of the cloth was in the capital on Zimpapers business.
From the brutal attack in which they were indiscriminately assaulted with a garden fork, a stick and a hammer, Bishop Manhanga’s wife sustained fractured hands while her 21-year-old son had to be administered nine stitches on his head. He was also injured on knees and arms. They were admitted at Eland Hospital and have since been discharged, receiving further treatment at home.
Ernest, who endured agony as the robbers attacked him, his mother and two other younger siblings, told The Manica Post that the three youthful callous burglars smashed the window to the bedroom before breaking the burglar-bar to gain entrance.
“When it all started, it was mum who came and woke me up saying the bedroom window had been smashed. I went with her to the bedroom and as I tried to close the window on which some glasses had been smashed, they hit the burglar bars and within seconds they were in. They charged towards mum and I tried to defend her but I was hit with a hammer on the head. They had no masks and they looked my age. They started moving around, searching for items they could take. I ran to my sister’s room to ensure her safety. When I got back to mum, they started hitting us using a thick stick, a hammer and a garden fork.
“As they assaulted us, they told us that we were going to die. They said they would go on to rape my little sister. They hit me on the head with the stick which eventually broke. When they heard the sound of a car by the gate, they escaped. It was my uncle and cousins who had arrived,” said Ernest.
Attempts by the victims to use the police hot lines were in vain while detectives took too long to attend the scene. “I was not here when it happened. I was in Harare attending to some Zimpapers business. I was only called by my wife at 02:47am and when I answered there was no one on the line. When I called back it was unreachable. Two minutes later I phoned the maid and she said she heard weird sounds and screams.
“She said she was too scared to go out. I instantly phoned my brother in law who stays nearby to check on my family since I was already sensing danger. Things could have been worse if my brother in law was not nearby and if my son was not around. I am not complaining against the police but I am saying the situation could have been made worse if my brother-in-law was not around.
“The police hotline or switchboard is not functioning while there was no vehicle to attend the scene. We were only able to reach out to the police because our maid knows a certain senior police officer (name withheld) who was then phoned and in turn, the senior officer then phoned officers at the police station.
“It is simply because they are incapacitated and there is no way we can expect them to do their job efficiently when they do not have the requisite tools. However, I have no doubt that they are able to carry out their investigations and hopefully bring the culprits to book,” said a visibly distraught Bishop Manhanga.
He said he is yet to know the motive of the robbery. “I really do not know what they were up to. If it was a mere robbery I thought they could just have tied my wife, the boy and the other children, took away whatever they wanted and go. But these are people who were bent on assaulting people who were not defending themselves.
“In fact, my wife and son had told them to take whatever they wanted but they kept on assaulting them and threatening them with death and rape. I just don’t understand the motive,” said Bishop Manhanga.
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