Online Reporter
YESTERDAY we reported that former Dynamos chairman Rafik Adam was left bloodied when he was attacked by four armed men at his offices in central Harare in a daring raid in which the robbers stole US$500,000.
They disguised themselves as clients when they came to Adam’s offices along Cameroon Street in the Harare Central Business District.
Adam, a prominent businessman in the capital, is a former Warriors team manager and was a very influential member of the backroom staff during the Dream Team era.
He is a football-loving man who has helped scores of the country’s footballers and administrators over the years.
Sources have said he owns a number of properties, including the building which houses his offices, and a number of tenants usually pay their dues at the same offices.
His face was bloodied when he emerged from his office calling for help and this showed that he had been attacked but by then the robbers had disappeared.
National police spokesperson, Commissioner Paul Nyathi, confirmed that Adam lost US$500,000 in the attack.
He said investigations have started and the police will release more details in due course.
A day earlier in Harare, armed robbers also attacked a house in Mt Pleasant.
The owner of the house is a director at Road Angels company.
The armed robbers got away with US$13 000.
We can only speculate how the robbers knew that there was money at both premises.
Just a week ago, we reported that a local businessman lost his firearm and US$184 900 in cash at his lover’s house in Ruwa on Saturday.
Joseph Maruta, 40, had collected US$181 000 cash from a farm where he supplied potato seeds in Kwekwe that day.
He went home to Kambuzuma, collected his pistol and went to his girlfriend Leoba Hunda’s place in Springvale in Ruwa.
By the time he woke up both the bag and the firearm were gone.
The three cases all lead us to one thing – such huge amounts of money should not be kept at our homes and our offices.
Such huge amounts of money belong to the bank.
That is the only place where the thousands of dollars are safe.
It is the only place that gives the owner of such an amount of money peace of mind.
We don’t know why many of us are stubborn and believe that they are specialists in keeping their money which is kept at home and at the offices.
We don’t know why such people take such big gambles.
We have repeated this call again and again – just take your money to the bank.
Adam knows that his money would have been safe at the bank.
It’s a lesson to all of us that our money is not safe whether it is in a safe at home or at the office.
The only place where it is safe is a bank.
Let’s keep our money at the bank.
Not even the banks are safe. Lest it be a reminder that the over four million US dollar cash heist at Ecobank in Bulawayo months ago is still unresolved.