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Givemore Muzariri
ONE of Zimbabwe’s most feared armed robbers, Mthokozisi Jethro Gumede (45), who was sentenced to 35 years in prison on three counts of robbery and one count of attempted murder, has opened up after exactly 17 years of imprisonment at Khami Maximum Prison.
In an interview, Gumede said he was roped into this industry way back in 1995 after relocating to South Africa in 1990 upon realising that Zimbabwe had serious competition in terms of employment. So this requirement made it difficult for Gumede to fit into the Zimbabwean society as he was not educated.
“Soon after completing my studies like any other citizen I moved to the city of Bulawayo in search of employment as it was high time for me to start fending for my family. While in the city I discovered that I was disadvantaged by the fact that I was not educated.
“That disadvantage made it difficult for me to get the job that I always dreamt of, so I was left with little or no option but to relocate to South Africa as I wanted better opportunities to be able to drive a car just like any other boy of my age that I was meeting in the city,” he said.
Gumede said on arrival in South Africa he secured a better paying job and in a period of six months he had managed to raise funds to acquire a car as he was aiming at establishing his own company that would create employment in South Africa.
“When I discovered that Zimbabwe had a lot of competition I decided to call one of my brothers who was already in South Africa to at least accommodate me for the first few days while looking for a job like any other foreigner.
“My brother organised accommodation for me in South Africa and soon after he sent umalayitsha to fetch me in Zimbabwe as I did not have a passport to use public transport. On arrival I started working at a company that was better paying and my brother who had organised everything for me actually urged me to buy my own car aiming at forming my own company,” he said.
Gumede said in the seventh month he identified a car that he wanted to buy but unfortunately he was robbed as they were on their way to pay for the asset. This robbery affected Gumede in a big way such that he could not come to terms with the incident.
“I suspect this robbery was strategised by people that knew me because they intercepted us as we were on our way to buy the car that I had identified for my business. The boys who pounced on us were armed and we had little or no option but to comply.
“I gave them all the money that I had and I was left with nothing. Just imagine the time that I had spent working towards achieving this goal. This really affected me such that it took me more than two months to adjust and come to terms with the incident,” he said.
Gumede said after losing such a large amount of money he opened up to his brother, whom he told that he was joining a group of gangsters who happened to be from the same home area in Tsholotsho.
“I decided to join a team of robbers and the members of this group were from Tsholotsho and they started by teaching me how to use a gun. With the zeal that I had in terms of learning, it took me less than two weeks to master the tricks.
“On our first raid in Johannesburg I almost gave up on the job as we ended up exchanging fire with the security team that was manning the premises that we were targeting.
What I still remember vividly is that when we left for the raid, we were six in total but after the job we discovered that four members had been shot dead, leaving two members,” he said.
Gumede said the death of four members of their group left the two surviving members with a task of replacing the deceased members. In recruiting the new members they decided to target youths, who were still very active to carry out the duties without any difficulties.
“While in South Africa we started recruiting youths who were interested in our trade and from our scouting we managed to get six youths, who came on board for proper training before we could execute any raids.
“In training these youths we taught them how to operate guns and perfecting their shooting skills and they would be shooting bottles as their targets making them the best shooters,”he said.
Gumede said upon completing the orientation programme they invaded numerous Southern African countries carrying out raids that saw a lot of people losing both money and properties to the team. Countries they raided include Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and Mozambique.
“I operated as a robber for more than a decade and I raided most of our southern African countries. I became so accustomed to this job such that I was always armed because anytime was tea time for some of us.
“During our operations we came to Zimbabwe in 2003 with my team and we got a tip-off that Choppies Bellevue had some money and we decided to investigate on how best we could get that money without any difficulties. The information that we got was so instrumental such that we later managed to raid the shop and we got away with the money we needed.
“Immediately after the raid we skipped the border going back to South Africa leaving behind one of my best friends that we had executed this operation together,” he said.
Gumede said his friend was later tracked and arrested by the police and in their investigations he provided them with his location in South Africa. Zimbabwe Republic Police with the assistance of Interpol later managed to apprehend him at his South African base.
“I never thought Zimbabwe had the most advanced intelligence team as it managed to investigate our issue leading to my arrest as the leader of the gang. On the day of my arrest I was relaxed at home and never thought I was being tracked for a crime I committed in Zimbabwe.
“In court the magistrate gave me a deterrent sentence as it had been furnished to the court that I was operating with youths, whom I was supposed to teach constructive initiatives instead of turning them into criminals,”he said.
When Gumede was sentenced to 35 years in prison at first he thought the magistrate was joking but when he got to Khami Remand Prison in October 2004 that was the time he realised that for sure he was now under incarceration.
“I never thought I would be in prison for this long as 35 years was just too much for someone like me. Today as I speak to you from this place it’s exactly 17 years since I last walked out there freely. Each time I think of my children that I left out there my heart bleeds.
“At first it was not easy to adjust living without seeing my children but through counselling I have learnt that everything happens for a reason and I have since learnt to accept my situation,” he said.
Gumede said while in prison he decided to go to school to advance himself academically as he was an uneducated person and since his arrest he has managed to complete his Ordinary Levels even though he could not sit for the final examination due to non availability of funds.
“As we speak today I am happy to tell you that it is important for one to just go to school even if you won’t sit for the final examination. Right now I have a totally different approach to life and if I am to be given an opportunity to go out there today I am going to contribute positively towards the development of the nation.
“After completing my education with the assistance of rehabilitation section I chose to pursue a musical career as music has always been a part of me especially imbube type of music,” he said.
Gumede said he formed a music group called Amabhubesi Sons of Asegai (ASA). This group mainly focuses on imbube type of music and it was formed mainly to educate and entertain inmates for them to relieve stress while serving.
“I realised that music is the only way to reduce stress in my personal capacity and even to other inmates and since 2006 my group has been growing stronger and with the rebranding of Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service we have been invited to different functions to provide entertainment,” he said.
Gumede challenged the community to partner prisons in the process of rehabilitating inmates for the successful re-integration of inmates.
“I am actually calling the community to partner with prisons as this would help us in a big way as inmates. As a group we are calling on music promoters to come on board and record our music as this will help us also.
“Also we are calling on the community to accept us as inmates and give us another chance to show the world that we can do better. It is very sad to note that there are laws that are actually promoting discrimination of ex-convicts once they go back into the community,” he said.
Leonard Matsvange, station rehabilitation officer at Khami Maximum Prison said it was encouraging to realise that Gumede was so co-operative in different programmes of rehabilitation introduced at their station.
“I have worked with a lot of inmates and I am proud to tell you that Gumede is one of the people that I look up to, when it comes to rehabilitation activities at our station.
“Before the outbreak of coronavirus Gumede and his musical team were taking part in different musical competitions and this has actually boosted their confidence, when it comes to the issue of art,”he said.
Online Reporter