Zim Now Writer
Residents of the SDP area of Beitbridge have raised alarm over the spate of robberies taking place in the residential area of the southern border town.
This comes as residents allege police inaction in dealing with the vice.
Chairman of SDP residents, Abel Hindi said: “Armed robbers strike every day. The problem started in 2018 but then they were just thieves who were not armed. We used to guard the place until we decided to employ guards. They break screens and get into houses.
“Because there is a limit to what we can do as residents, we always call the police but they come late and by then the amred robbers would have escaped. If they do not have money, they will attack and harm you. There is a young man who is currently admitted in Bulawayo after he was shot in the leg and yet another child who was referred to Morgenster Mission Hospital in Masvingo after being injured by the armed robbers.
“We are not getting as much help as we would expect from the police. There are many police officers in Beitbridge. They should also come here not the Border Post where they are now concentrated. Our lives are actually in danger.
“They usually come around midnight up to around 330am. So far, we have not heard of any arrests,” said Hindi.
A resident of the area, who declined to be named, said she is almost always tightly indoors as she gave birth recently. “I am usually indoors because of my condition as someone who gave birth recently. However, I have heard these reports of armed robbers terrorising residents and we live in fear because they reportedly literally break into houses and they have guns,” she said.
Some residents have urged residents to go to Beitbridge Police Station as a group to request if they could be allowed to pitch their tents there every night for fear of the marauding armed robbers.
“Are the police failing to get a plan to deal with these armed robbers. We should all go, both house owners and tenants, to the Charge Office, maybe this can help us,” a resident only identified as Gumbi said.
Contacted for comment, Officer commanding police in Beitbridge, Chief Superintendent Tichaona Nyongo, who could not immediately quantify the number of cases, confirmed the rise in armed robbery cases in SDP, adding that investigations pointed to perpetrators infiltrating the country through the porous borderline.
“Yes, we have had cases of armed robberies reported in the DSP area. For instance, we had two cases that happened at adjacent houses on the same night recently.
“Our investigations have, however pointed out to the fact that these criminals infiltrate the country through the porous borderline from South Africa,” Chief Supt Nyongo told Zim Now.
The Beitbridge police boss said as police, they had increased patrols throughout the district to ensure they harness the rising crime in Beitbridge.
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