Online Reporter
Freeman Razemba
Senior Reporter
FOUR armed robbers who were targeting schools and residents in and around Harare have been jailed for a total of 200 years.
Simbarashe Chambati (23), Thomas Marange (25), Tinashe Makara (31) and Amos Makara (43), who were arrested in June 2025, had unleashed a reign of terror on Harare residents through a series of armed robberies, were convicted and sentenced by the Harare Regional Court for six counts of armed robbery.
They appeared before the Harare Regional Court on June 23, 2026, where Chambati, Marange and Tinashe were sentenced to a total of 47 years imprisonment each, while Amos was sentenced to 59 years effective jail term.
Magistrate Mrs Feresi Chakanyuka presided over the matter while Mrs Tariro Jani appeared for the State.
In a statement, Criminal Investigations Department spokesperson Detective Inspector Rachel Muteweri said, “The quartet terrorised residents and businesses across Harare by targeting wholesale shops, schools and other premises.
“Their modus operandi involved attacking unsuspecting security guards and occupants before breaking into premises and stealing cash and other valuables at gunpoint.
“In some cases, they would use explosives to blast open safes before getting away with cash and other valuables.”
Investigations into the robbery cases were conducted on June 21, 2025, detectives from CID Homicide Harare received information linking Simbarashe Chambati to the commission of the robberies. Follow-ups were made, leading to his arrest.
Simbarashe Chambati implicated his accomplices, resulting in their arrest. A .38 special Taurus revolver loaded with three spent cartridges, eight x thunder T90 explosives, two x caped fuses, six x detonator cables, a bolt cutter, an okapi knife, two hard drives, one pair of gloves and a black masked wool hat were recovered following the arrest of the quartet.
Further investigations revealed that the recovered firearm was stolen by means of armed robbery on March 22, 2025, where they manhandled a security guard before disarming him of his service pistol.
They proceeded to blast open a safe before stealing US$1 620. In one of the cases that occurred on April 5, 2025, the robbers, armed with iron bars and a pistol, attacked a wholesale shop before getting away with property worth US$6 110.
On May 13, 2025, at around 12:15 am, the quartet struck again at another wholesale shop and got away with US$2 500, two laptops and a cellphone.
On May 21, 2025, armed with two pistols, they targeted a school and used explosives to blast open a safe, but could not find any valuables. They later stole a laptop valued at US$600.
The gang continued its robbing spree and on May 24, 2025, they pounced at a wholesale shop in Hatcliffe, Harare. Using explosives, they blasted the cash safe and got away with US$12 491.
