Mmegi

Crime victims speak out

JOSEPH BALISE

Alot does happen to victims of crime during its commission. Some victims are strangled, others are blindfolded and a substantial number injured during the commission of the crime

Victims of crime are generally a traumatised lot. They are very fragile people whose emotions need no tempering with. It is not even clear whether government does have a specific counselling programme for victims of crime. What is public knowledge though is that there are of course instances where victims are recommended to seek counselling by nurses attending to their injuries. That is of course if the victim has been injured during the commission of the crime.

Just recently, Kalakamati/Mbalambi/ Sekakangwe counsellor Zibani Mbalambi suffered a horrific instead in which thugs attacked his home in the very early hours of the 20th of May and eventually stole his Toyota Hilux Double Cab GD.6 SUV. Recounting his ordeal in an interview, Mbalambi said it was in the wee hours of 20th May when two thugs broke into his Mbalambi house wielding a gun, slashers and an axe.

According to his recollection, the two thugs, one speaking Setswana and another one speaking fluent Isindebele jumped through the screen wall into his homestead.

Once inside, the two thugs broke the main house door using a four and a half inch brick. It looks like within the split of a second the thugs had already identified the main bedroom thereby attacking the councillor and his wife who were still asleep.

Mbalambi, who is still shaken from the harrowing incident explained that the thieves demanded to hand over car keys and cellularphones. Further demanding that the victims cover their heads with the blankets they were sleeping on.

But as fate would have it, in that moment where the victims in utmost panick and shock, Mbalambi could not even remember where the car keys were. A thing that terribly angered the thugs.

At that heated moment when the thugs thought Mbalambi was refusing to hand over the keys, his wife came to the rescue. Explaining to the intruders that she has a spare key which is in her bag in the other room.

But before the thugs embarked on getting the key search in the other room, they assaulted Mbalambi with an axe.

It was after his assault that one of the thugs took his wife to the other room to give them the car key while the other one, with a gun remained behind on guard. Mbalambi said after the thugs got the car keys, they slashed his wife with a knife on the shoulder.

By this time, the intruders had already taken P750 from Mbalambi’s pocket and another P250 from his wife’s purse.

As if this was not enough, the intruders began to ransack the house literally getting away with anything on their sight.

They also stole Mbalambi’s two pairs of shoes, his new jacket and even a pair of used socks. “I just don’t understand what kind of thugs they are. Those who are not ashamed of stealing used socks. This is quite unusual”, said a distraught Mbalambi. The councillor said after taking what they wanted to take, they tied the couple with a wire before disappearing.

It was after the couple had managed to free themselves that they started to scream for help while the thieves had already gone.

Mbalambi added that though the police came early after receiving the report, it was not much of an assistance as the thieves had already vanished into thin air.

The councillor said his SUV had been nustalled with a tracker which tracked the vehicle up until Tokwani village in Zimbabwe. Nothing has been heard of the vehicle since and it looks like the thieves eventually managed to deactivate the tracker.

In Mbalambi ‘s view, it is clear that there is an informant within Mbalambi village working in concert with the thieves. He said this is not the first motor vehicle theft in the village.

The councillor explained that a combi was stolen in the village in the month of April and hardly a month later he was attacked and his double cab taken.

Another victim who was also attacked at his home in Zwenshambe in the wee hours of 20th April, Clever Matoobona also shared his ordeal in an interview.

Matoobona said he was attacked around 0300 hrs on Friday 20th April while he was still asleep with his wife.

He was attacked by thieves wielding pangas, machetes, and other dangerous tools by two thieves who demanded his car keys and money.

The thieves broke into the house and demanded that the victims keep quiet and not shout out for help. They were also told to cover their heads with blankets. Obviously a bid by the thieves not to recognized.

Matoobona said he told the thieves that he had no money, an explanation that deeply angered them.

It is at this stage that they searched and took almost anything they could lay their hands on. They took the car keys, P150 which he had spared for fuel, four cellphones, three laptops, a television set, decoder, an iron, clothes, toiletry, food and others. They literally left the victims with nothing. Matoobona is however happy with the kind of support that he recieved from his neighbours and church members after the ordeal. In another unrelated incident, a Mulambakwena resident, Mmusi Mapolelo had his Toyota Corolla stolen while he was still sleeping around 2100hrs recently.

Mapolelo said he had decided to rest early from a tiring day a few days after his mother’s funeral. Unfortunately for him, he had left his car unlocked. The neighbours saw somebody fiddling with the car but did not immediately suspect that something was amiss. It was only in the midnight that they realized that the vehicle must have been stolen upon waking him up. The case is one of the many vehicle theft cases that have been reported to the police.

Crime

en-bw

2023-06-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://enews.mmegi.bw/article/281797108380050

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