BEITBRIDGE police have arrested five of the six suspected armed robbers that early last week allegedly stripped an ex-soldier Dogeni Patsika of R53 000 in a violent pre-dawn robbery.
BY REX MPHISA
Reacting swiftly to leads, operatives stationed at Beitbridge Criminal Investigations Department netted Amos Zhou (43), Lovemore Simango (31) and Cuthbert Panganai at a car washing kiosk in Kadoma, where they fled to after the alleged crime.
According to documents shown to Southern Eye, police had already accounted for Juliet Isaka (32) and Dennis Muguzumbi, both of Dulivhadzimo township, who were apprehended soon after the robbery.
Detective Constable Tobias Chatikobo apprehended Zhou, Simango and Panganai as they cleaned their getaway car in Kadoma, almost 500km away from the scene of crime.
Isaka provided the essential link. As for Muguzumbi, it was his slow legs that betrayed him when he was caught by his victim Patsika.
Muguzumbi is likely to face an attempted murder charge for stabbing Patsika in the head and back, following which the former was immobilised by a blow on the forehead which saw him tumble.
Patsika was transferred to Bulawayo where surgeons are expected to remove a piece of the knife lodged inside his skull.
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On Monday last week, Patsika, a retired military instructor, gave housemate Isaka a lift from Chiredzi to Beitbridge.
Along the way, Isaka allegedly communicated with Zhou through text messages and WhatsApp chats bringing him up to speed on Patsika’s movements.
Isaka knew that Patsika, who runs a tuckshop at the house they both lodge rooms in Chiredzi, would be carrying money for his shop orders and planned the robbery, Chatikobo stated in a sworn affidavit in the court records.
Zhou set up a gang which trailed and robbed Patsika soon after he dropped Isaka at her house.
Police recovered R7 200, a knobkerrie, pepper spray and a golf club in the gang’s gataway Mercedes-Benz. The gang members will appear again in court after a fortnight.
