Online Reporter
UNTIL recently, Nothando Banana endured the monotony of workday life at a company called Steelforce in Bulawayo.
Although the money she earned was enough to meet her day-to-day needs, she knew it would never make her rich.
So, when robbers stormed the company premises recently, armed with pistols and a garden pick, the quick-thinking Banana thought this was the big break she was waiting for.
After the robbers got away with US$32 500 from one of the safes, she took advantage of the confusion to help herself to US$24 400 from the other safe.
She was set for life, or so she thought.
A post-audit conducted in the aftermath of the robbery only discovered US$2 600 in the safe that she controlled.
Banana failed to satisfactorily explain the anomaly, which became her banana skin.
She was subsequently arrested.
Under police questioning, she could not exhibit the steely resolve and composure she did when robbers terrorised employees at the company on that fateful day and she cracked.
She could not even come up with an explanation convincing enough to cover the many missing zeroes.
In her ruling, magistrate Mrs Dambudzo Malunga called it “a calculated betrayal of trust”.
So, instead of receiving sympathy as a robbery survivor, Banana earned herself an unenviable six-year stint as a guest of the State.
Had she resisted the temptation to commit a robbery within a robbery, she might still be employed at the same firm to this day and perhaps even laughing with colleagues about that “crazy day” when they survived the attack.
She now has six years to regret her moment of “moemish”.
Tinaye Agere
Online Reporter