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Midlands Bureau
A BRAVE City Link bus driver saved the day when he latched onto the leg of an alleged robber who had snatched a bag containing about $10 000 as the bus was picking up and dropping off passengers at the On-the-Run Highway Stopover in Gweru.

The incident happened around 4.30pm at the stopover, which is used as a pick-up and drop-off point by luxury buses passing through Gweru.
The bus was coming from Bulawayo and going to Harare.

Acting Midlands province police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Ethel Mukwende, confirmed the incident.
“We are still investigating the alleged robbery. No facts are available as yet,” she said.

According to eyewitnesses, the robber – who was part of a two member gang – disembarked from a White Subaru, which had no number plates before allegedly opening a compartment of the bus that had the bag with the money.

“There was a bag suspected to have the United State dollars in a small compartment, which is outside the bus on the driver’s side. The robbers driving a white Subaru parked by the side of the bus before one of them disembarked, opened the compartment and grabbed the bag,” said a witness who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said just as the robber was trying to make off with the money by jumping into the getaway vehicle, the alert driver latched onto his leg.

“The driver caught him in a rugby tackle style as the car sped off, leaving the two wrestling on the ground. The driver shouted ‘thief, thief’, attracting members of the public and passengers who quickly intervened and apprehended the suspect,” said the source.

He said the robber was allegedly assaulted before he was arrested by the police.
“Suspicion is that the robbers followed the bus from Bulawayo where they saw the driver putting the bag with money into the compartment. We understand from the driver was carrying over $10 000,” said the source.

He said this was the second time that the company was allegedly robbed. In the first instance it lost $6 000 under same modus operandi.

When the our news crew visited the scene, the police had already apprehended the robber identified as Sifiso Mapfumo of Bulawayo.

At Gweru Central Police Station, Mapfumo clad in a black leather jacket and with a cut above his right eye, allegedly sustained from the beatings he got from members of the public, was assisting police with investigations.

On Wednesday last week, two armed robbers made off with $30 and a cellphone after pouncing on a Bulawayo-bound bus near Shangani Business Centre about 50km from Gweru.

The armed robbers, who boarded the bus, which was coming from Harare in Gweru, were armed with a pistol and a machete.

Cases of armed robbers targeting buses are not common in the country.
Most locals who have found themselves at the mercy of such armed robbers have been targets while travelling in neighbouring South Africa.