The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube Sunday News Reporter
REVELLERS at a bottle store in Bulawayo’s New Magwegwe suburb were last Sunday sent scurrying for cover when a youthful imbiber reportedly drew and aimed a pistol at one of the patrons following an argument over the drunken youth’s behaviour.The youth identified as Arnold Ncube, who is popularly known in the suburb as Thanka, is reported to have been constantly bringing the weapon to Mabodoko Shopping Centre where he usually drinks with his friends.
Efforts to get a comment from the police on the alleged incident were, however, fruitless as this reporter was referred to Harare where national police spokesperson, Superintendent Paul Nyathi, said they had not received such a report.
However, investigations by this publication revealed that the youth had been taken in by police officers at Magwegwe Police Station where his weapon was confiscated and taken for tests to ascertain whether it had been used in criminal activities.
It is alleged that he got into an argument with one of his friends who had warned him to stop toying with the weapon as he could injure or kill someone.
“We were playing a game of draught with my friends when we saw them pushing and shoving. At first people ignored them because those two usually drink together. However, it was during that scuffle that Thanka drew a firearm and aimed it at his friend, threatening to kill him.
“People, who were drinking at the bottle store, ran for cover when they realised that there was a gun involved. The bottle store manager ran towards Magwegwe Police Station and came back in the company of plain-clothes officers, who took Thanka away,” said a New Magwegwe resident, who only identified himself as Nkosi.
Other residents interviewed said Thanka had for the past couple of months been openly brandishing the pistol whenever he went out to drink but people were afraid to report him to the police, fearing that he might harm them.
“Ask anyone in the suburb and they will tell you that he has been seen with a gun for the past couple of months, actually ever since he came back from South Africa in July he has made it no secret that he owns a gun. However, it seems no one wanted to be viewed as the one who had sold him out,” said another resident who requested anonymity.
A member of the Magwegwe Residents’ Association, who also declined to be named, said they had called for an urgent meeting with youths from the suburb to get to the bottom of the issue.
“What disappoints us is that his friends claim that they were fully aware of Thanka’s gun but they did not report this to the authorities, which is worrying because with the way this boy drinks we could have woken up one day with one of our own killed. That is why we have decided to intervene as a matter of urgency, if the police fails to deal with this, we will sort it out ourselves,” said the residents’ association member.
