The Sunday News
Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
FOUR men believed to be part of an organised syndicate of seven that robbed a Chinese mining company of more than seven kilogrammes of gold after masquerading as police officers and setting up a roadblock have appeared before a Kwekwe magistrate facing robbery charges.
The four, Munyaradzi Guruve (36), Tatenda Chiposi (29), Admire Rusmas Shereni (36) and Yosia Yose (35) were all arraigned before Kwekwe magistrate Mr Tayengwa Sangster after they masqueraded as members of the uniformed forces and mounted a fake roadblock where they stole the gold belonging to Ching Chang Mining Company.
The four, in the company of three others who are still at large, allegedly wore Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) uniforms before mounting the roadblock along Kwekwe-Gokwe Highway which they used to stop the vehicle that was carrying the gold to Harare and robbing the mine vehicle of 7,681 kilogrammes of smelted gold.
The four, who were represented by Mr Wisdom Mehlo of Mugabe, Mehlo and Partners Legal Practitioners, were granted $300 bail each and will return to court on 20 December.
The State led by Mr Divine Chakombera had consented to the granting of bail to Shereni who was driving the car but had conspired with the robbers while the others remain in custody, but Mr Mehlo said the accused persons should be treated equally.
Mr Mehlo argued that all the four, and not Shereni alone, had been over-detained hence they all deserve their freedom which the magistrate agreed to.
In granting bail, Mr Sangster ordered the four accused to continue residing at their given addresses and report once every week at their nearest police stations.
Mr Chakombera told the court that, on 30 November around 7.40am, Guruve, Chiposi and Yose together with three others, Shepherd Gweshe, a Clayton and a Dadi who are still at large, hatched a plan with Shereni, who works at Ching Chang Mining to rob the company of gold ore.
Guruve, Chiposi, Yose and the other three accused then wore ZRP and army camouflages before they proceeded to the five-kilometre peg along the Kwekwe-Gokwe Highway where they mounted a makeshift roadblock.
Shereni, who was driving the complainant, Mr Jiao Guohao carrying the smelted gold ore destined for Harare, flashed three times as he approached the roadblock to alert the other accused that he was approaching. The accused manning the roadblock then flagged down the vehicle to stop.
As Shereni stopped the vehicle, the other accused took a pepper spray chemical which they used to spray Mr Jiao and the security guard, leaving out Shereni.
They then took a back pack which contained four bars of smelted gold and drove off in the vehicle, leaving the complainant stranded.
They were later arrested by police detectives at their respective homes in Chitungwiza, Mount Darwin and Shamva.
