Ngqwele Dube, Sunday News Correspondent
THIEVES took advantage of water shedding before raiding 60 houses in Njube, Bulawayo where they stole taps on Friday night.
The thieves were allegedly targeting brass taps in their midnight raid.
Although Bulawayo police spokesperson, Inspector Abednico Ncube said only eight residents had so far come forward to report the cases, residents told Sunday News yesterday that more than 60 houses in the suburb were raided.
“Investigations are in progress and we believe the thieves could be people who live within the community so we urge those that might have information which might assist the police solve the crimes to come forward,” Insp Ncube said.
One of the residents, Mr Morris Mukwiti, who stays in F Square said he woke up at 6am and was about to take a bath when he noticed his tap was missing. He said he immediately noticed that his neighbour’s tap was also missing and after enquiring from others, he realised several of the houses had their taps stolen.
“After realising that my tap and the neighbour’s were missing I alerted other residents through our area WhatsApp group to check their meters and that is when it emerged many houses had fallen victim to the thieves. From our count, more than 60 houses were raided,” said Mr Mukwiti.
Another F Square resident, Ms Nyaradzo Hoboya said no one heard the thieves at night but only discovered in the morning that the taps were stolen.
“My daughter was sweeping outside when she was alerted by our neighbour, Mukwiti that our tap was missing. As you can see the tap is close to 16 metres from the house so it would be difficult to hear the thieves when one is sleeping but we saw footprints around the toilet and we believe they belong to the thief,” she said.
Mr Antony Ndlovu of E Square said he also realised the tap was missing in the morning and had to replace it with a plastic tap which he was given by a neighbour.