Suspected robbers in court

Prosper Dembedza

Herald Correspondent

THREE men have appeared in court on allegations of robbing a service station and a school in Harare.

Washington Musindo, Tinashe Tagwireyi and Lameck Magaya, were facing robbery charges when they appeared before Harare magistrate, Mrs Marehwanazvo Gofa, who remanded them in custody to November 3 pending trial. 

They were told only the High Court could consider an application for bail for this type of crime.

It is the State’s case that on October 11, the three and accomplices who are still at large, armed themselves with a pistol, metal bars, bolt cutters and explosives.

They went to a Total Service Station at Budiriro 1 shops in Harare, manhandled the security guard and petrol attendant threatening to shoot them if they did not comply with their orders. They tied the two up in an office using cables from mobile phone chargers.

The gang searched the fuel attendant and stole his Itel AS8 phone, US$4 and $4 000 before forcing open the director’s office where they stole a Lenovo laptop, 2x DVR. Finding keys in a drawer, they opened a safe and stole US$6 000 and disappeared into the darkness. The total value stolen is US$6 200 and nothing was recovered.

On September 26, at around 2000 hours, Musindo and accomplices still at large, armed themselves with an unidentified pistol, bolt cutters, metal bars and explosives, and went to Westlea Primary School. They pounced on two security guards who were on duty at the school, and force-marched them into one of the classroom blocks where they placed them under guard. 

Others in the gang then broke the screen door and the doors of the administration block, blasted open the safe in the head’s office where they took US$1 932 cash. They also took a HP Core i7 silver laptop, Two HP Envy laptops, a HP Laserjet Pro MFP printer, a Cadac 45 litre cooler box, a AFM solar Digimark, 62kg of beef, 30kg of chicken drumsticks, a HP laptop Core iS, and two LED solar lights. 

The total value stolen is US$8 088 and only US$1 200 was recovered. 

On September 27, at around 2am, Musindo and his accomplices, who are still at large, hit Rukudzo Primary School in Kambuzuma Section 3, Harare where they attacked the guard, tied his hands and legs with shoelaces before kicking and punching him. They took US$4 from his pockets.

They then proceeded to the administration block where they blasted the safe in the headmaster’s office, but failed to open it. They took US$404 that was in a small cashbox, an Acer laptop and an assortment of groceries. 

The blast damaged property in the office and the total value of stolen goods is US$1 075 and nothing was recovered.