adminThe robbers got away with boxes of cigarettes and alcohol worth about $8 000.
Acting officer commanding Zvishavane district Superintendent Robert Mgazambi confirmed the incident, which occurred yesterday at about 3am.
The guard has been identified as Jetro Mazarire (age not given) of Mandava high density suburb in the asbestos mining town.
When Chronicle visited the scene yesterday, a welder was busy fixing the broken burglar door and fitting new locks.
In an interview, the company’s general manager, Mr Tanison Mthombeni, said he received the news of the death of one of the wholesale’s employees with shock and said they would hire armed personnel to man all their important premises.
“I received the news from Sergeant Sibanda at around 3 am when I was in bed, to the effect that one of his colleagues manning our wholesale was murdered by unknown assailants. I went to the scene and saw our employee dead but his senior (Sibanda) confirmed that he found him still breathing and tried to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, without success,” said Mr Mthombeni.
He said initial investigations had shown that the robbers escaped with boxes of cigarettes and spirits with a combined value of $8 401,50 and petty cash amounting to $15 from one of the tills.
He said cases of robbery were on the increase in Zvishavane and appealed to the police to be on the lookout for criminals.
“Last year we had a similar incident where a security guard manning National Food Wholesale was attacked and killed by robbers. They allegedly hit him on the head with an iron bar and he died on the spot. They then proceeded to ransack the wholesale and got away with groceries worth thousands of dollars. The robbers also left a rifle behind. In the same year, a robber wielding a firearm got into one of our shops in the compounds here and ordered all customers to lie down. Fortunately he got away with nothing,” he said.
Supt Mgazambi said the guard’s body was taken to White Hospital mortuary for post-mortem.
Online Reporter