Court Reporter
A SUSPECTED armed robber believed to be part of the gang that went around the country targeting passengers in buses, taxi drivers and supermarkets yesterday appeared in court facing five counts of armed robbery.
William Takundwa (25) was not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare magistrate Ms Anita Tshuma.
He was remanded in custody to July 11 this year. Ms Tshuma advised him to apply for bail at the High Court.
The first complainant is Dickson Muzowaka of Bordervale, Mutare, who is employed as a taxi driver.
On November 15 last year, Takundwa in the company of three others, who are still at large, hired the complainant from Mutare City Centre to Hobhouse in Mutare.
Along the way Takundwa and his accomplices produced a pistol and ordered Muzowaka who was driving a Toyota Spacio to stop and he complied.
Takundwa allegedly forced Muzowaka off the driver’s seat and took control of the vehicle and drove off. They also stole US$227 and two Nokia cellphones before dumping the vehicle along Mutare/Harare Road.
On the second count, Takundwa and his two accomplices pounced on a Ministry of Mines official who had offered them lift.
On arrival in Mutare one of the gang members asked the complainant to stop the vehicle so that he could relieve himself.
The others who remained in the car struck the complainant with a blunt object on the head.
They allegedly searched him and stole US$50, two cellphones before taking control of the vehicle and speeding off.
They later dumped the vehicle in Harare where it was later recovered.
In Rusape, it alleged, the gang posed as policemen and accused the complainant Mosita Binali of selling stolen airtime and forced her into their getaway car and stealing US$4 000, R6 000 £4 000 and airtime worth US$900.
On the fourth count, the gang allegedly went to Mzilikazi Supermarket, in Bulawayo armed with a pistol in February this year and ordered everyone to lie down. They stole a till containing US$1 500 and airtime worth US$250 before fleeing.
It is further alleged that on March 3 this year in Gweru, the gang robbed Tawanda Makotsi and his friends of US$443, three cellphones and one blanket after his friends had a breakdown at 156km peg long Chivhu-Nyazura Road.