US$650 000 Gold Heist: Public Questions Competence...

US$650 000 Gold Heist: Public Questions Competence of Bulawayo Police

Bridget Mabanda

The general public has come out to question the competence of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in Bulawayo following the snatching of 11.9 kgs of gold worth US$650000 belonging to How Mine today.

@Chimudhara:

Why is it difficult to change Homicide Bulawayo. They have failed completely or are rather complicit with the robbers.

@Dimingu Phiri

What exactly is happening with the Bulawayo Homicide division of CID? It seems robbers get away always with the loot and no arrest? Who runs it? Transfer him/her, put new brains.

There were several other comments along the same lines.

The comments came on the ZRP Twitter handle after the police formally announced that three cash-in-transit vehicles were waylaid by 13 armed robbers who, despite a spirited effort by a manager to fight them, still managed to vanish into thin air with the loot and a couple of guns they managed to wrestle from the guards.

https://zimbabwenow.co.zw/articles/517/updated-how-mine-gun-slinger-security-manager-forces-us650-000-gold-heist-gang-to-abandon-truck-and-pistol-at-scene

National Police Spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi told Zim Now that Bulawayo police is not underperforming, contrary to perception.

“The arrest rate is the same in all provinces and CID is not the only arm that is involved in investigation of that nature. For the record, Bulawayo has so far arrested seven suspects involved in different crime acts,” he said.

On September 13, five armed robbers pounced on the CBZ Branch along Fife Street and got away with US$70 000. The public raised questions of how the robbers got away after reports on social media said that police got onto the scene with the suspects still in the bank.

Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi declined to give an update on investigation into the CBZ robbery but said that he assures the public that investigations are progressing

Bulawayo saw another robbery a month earlier at a Mukuru Branch in the city centre, and in the public domain at least, the suspects remain unidentified.

Meanwhile six armed robbers who stole US$30 000 from Koala Park Abattoir near Harare -on the same day that CBZ Bulawayo was hit, were arrested just a day after commission of the crime.

Last Saturday police CID team managed to foil another intended robbery at Birchenough Bridge Business Centre. One of the suspects, a serving member of the Zimbabwe National Army, lost his life in the shootout.

Mashonaland West province police also managed to nab 11 suspects from a 12-man gang that had terrorized the province.

The general public took to the Zimbabwe Republic Police Twitter space to voice concerns, implying the law enforcement agency in that part of the country may be too lax as they have failed to apprehend the criminals involved as has been the case with other places like Harare, Mashonaland West and Manicaland.