Harare woman’s bravery leads to arrest of robbers

**This picture collage shows the various stages captured by the victim of the Waterfalls robbery using her mobile phone.**

Gilbert Munetsi

A brave Waterfalls woman who was followed, way-laid and had money stolen from her has indirectly assisted police apprehend the robbers after she was able to take pictures of them using her phone.

The unidentified woman, who in a viral audio narrated how she was followed and way-laid, still managed to photograph one of the assailants. One of the pictures had number plates of the car.

In developments made public on social media groups, the robbers were arrested a few hours later though police were yet to issue an official statement to that effect at the time of going to press.

Two of the robbers have been named as Cleopas Mukwande, 41, and Simbarashe Chikwaru, 25, both of Epworth. They were using a white Honda Fit, registration number ADQ0122.

According to the woman’s narration, she lives in Mainway Meadows, Waterfalls near the 1st Gate.

At the weekend, one of her twin sons was taken ill and the sickness intensified a few days later, compelling her to take him to Parktown Hospital for medical attention yesterday.

The son was admitted until 3pm, upon which she got into her car and drove home. It was then that she observed that a car was trailing her.

As she was devising ways of heading for the police station, her car was blocked in a cul-de-sac and the assailants, including two women in police uniform, disembarked and headed for her car whose drivers’ side door they forced her to open.

“With one of them claiming to be a member of the state secret service, they claimed they had been sent by my husband who, unbeknown to them, I had been with at the hospital.

“They accused me of infidelity and of having been to a lodge with a secret lover, all in the hope of instilling more fear. We physically tussled during which instance they managed to forcibly take US$1 000 which was in my handbag,” the woman said with signs of trauma still discernible in her voice.

It was after they had snatched the cash and were heading to their getaway car that she was able to use her phone to picture them.

On realising this, one of them returned, possibly with a wish to confiscate the gadget, but the arrival of a school bus in the vicinity forced him to abort the idea and to flee the scene with his accomplices.

A few hours after the audio and pictures had circulated on social media platforms, more information emerged to the effect that two of the robbers had since been caught, with their names and place of origin exposed.