The Sunday News
By Nkosilathi Sibanda
THE bustling that usually typifies township life at sunset is no longer there in most high density suburbs of Bulawayo.
Gates and doors are shut at the fall of the sun, as soon as darkness sets in. Footsteps on the dusty streets are of late comers from a busy day’s work in the Central Business District.
As early as 6.30PM a rare quiet sets in. Everyone is at home. This is not of the Covid-19 induced curfew but a scenario created by robbers who have gained ground in neighbourhoods.
The recent spate of house break-ins around the city’s townships have left residents with a biting fright.
Police are amazed. They have not met with such an inundation of similar crime reports from all over the city.
These robbers, in the thick of the night, have unleashed a wave of terror never been experienced before in modern day. The armed raiders do the most heinous of tactics. They are reported to be travelling in big groups, taking the Wild West behaviour of ultimate outlaws.
While everyone is asleep, in the wee hours they pounce. They hit and kill dogs. Heavy security barricades on doors and windows do not deter them. Axes, machetes, hoes, hacksaws, spanners are the tools they use to break down doors, windows and rooftops.
The scanty lighting system at some neighbourhoods and the nonexistent street lights in newly built areas helps the bounty looters and assaulters to disguise in the dark of the night.
In a space of a week, the gang of thieves attacked more than three suburbs targeting homes and business premises. Last Sunday residents of a section of Entumbane and Lobengula West woke up to find their car batteries looted. A tuck-shop owner had his window smashed.
Fowl runs were ransacked and other valuable property destroyed. Selling chickens is a popular business in the townships. About 80 percent of families in townships sell wares from where they eke a decent living for household sustenance.
The same night occupants of a house at Emakhandeni witnessed a reign of terror. Doors were broken down, lounge windows pulled off as robbers forcibly gained entry and demanded money. The same was also experienced at Enganwini, Gwabalanda and Nkulumane midway in the year.
Crime cases involving, house break-ins, assault, theft and vandalism of such a nature are on the rise countrywide. Statistics obtained showed that the crime index is at an average 66 percent in urban areas.
Reports to the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) are said to have soared during the current lockdown induced by the Coronavirus plague.
Now, being out and about in townships, even before the 8PM lockdown curfew, is scary. Residents bear out that they have resorted to arm themselves.
Being vulnerable, the city dwellers have sought audience with the community leaders and police. They want a solution to deal with the crime acts that have turned houses into holes of hell.
“I sleep with one eye open, scared that they will knock at the door,” said Mr Leonard Murima a 60 year-old Emakhandeni resident whose neighbour, a chicken seller, was robbed of US$450 and undisclosed property recently.
Shockingly, when neighbours try to save a fellow resident from attack, the robbers turn the tide.
“They told us to retreat and go back to our homes. There were many. They shot catapults and threw stones at our houses when we tried to intervene and protect our neighbour. Some of us were chased to the gate by machete wielding strongly built men,” said Mr Murima.
The residents have thought the best way they could protect themselves was to form neighbourhood watch committees and roll out crime sensitisation campaigns.
With police also still tying loose ends on investigating the new wave of crime, residents have sought to help the law enforcers by being part of curbing crime in neighbourhoods.
A working relationship with the police was seen as the sure route. The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has on numerous occasions advocated to foster a good relationship with residents when it comes to stopping crime in communities.
In its community policing charter, ZRP explains that neighbourhood watch schemes were an effort to involve the public in policing issues.
“The scheme mainly targets property owners who join and assist to conduct night patrols in their respective areas. It involves residents becoming more responsive to the risk of crime and taking action to protect their own and neighbours property,” reads the charter that was enacted in 1984.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube said residents should guard against keeping large sums of money at their homes.
He encouraged home owners to properly secure their property, at the same time work with police to bring to an end the rampant violent house break-ins.
Although they run sacred by each day, residents that have witnessed the terror have in the meantime called for a swift solution before the robbers unleash more damage.
“This is our city and we won’t allow terror gangs, robbers to disturb our living. With the help of the police we are going to be vigilant and watch our neighbourhood. We cannot be held in fear and be cowed by thieves,” said Mr Donald Ncube a resident at Gwabalanda, one of the townships hardest hit by armed robbers.
At Emganwini, residents who spoke to Sunday News said robbers have gone to an extent of beating families they would have raided.
“I have received disturbing narrations of how these robbers go on to beat up people after having taken their money and valuables,” said the area leader, Councillor Norman Hlabano last week.
On Friday last week, Emakhandeni residents held a crunch discussion to map the way toward setting up a vibrant neighbourhood watch team.
Residents led pressure group the Bulawayo United Residents Association (Bura) was of the notion that the neighbourhood watch patrols are the magic bullet.
“There is no other way than to join forces with the police and fight this enemy in our high density areas,” said the Bura chairman Mr Winos Dube.
Gory incidents such as the Emakhandeni robberies have to be a wakeup call.
“The fear factor at the suburb can only be swept away if residents put their heads together and work with police. While everyone is still at loss for words on the kind of robberies taking place, we have to pull together as the residents of Bulawayo. Crime does not belong here,” said a cleric with one of the city’s popular Christian churches, Pastor Lungisani Dube.
