Four-armed robbers have been convicted of six counts of armed robbery.<\/p>\n
This follows a series of armed robberies around Harare CBD.<\/p>\n
Simbarashe Chambati (23), Thomas Marange (25), Tinashe Makara (31), and Amos Makara (43) were arrested in June 2025, last year.<\/p>\n
The robbers had unleashed a reign of terror on Harare residents through a series of armed robberies.<\/p>\n
The quartet terrorised residents and businesses across Harare by targeting wholesale shops, schools, and other premises.<\/p>\n
Their modus operandi involved attacking unsuspecting security guards and occupants before breaking into premises and stealing cash and other valuables at gunpoint.<\/p>\n
In some cases, they would use explosives to blast open safes before getting away with cash and other valuables.<\/p>\n
Investigations into the robbery cases were instituted, and on \u00a0June 21 2025, detectives from CID Homicide Harare received information linking Simbarashe Chambati to the commission of the robberies.<\/p>\n
Follow-ups were made, leading to his arrest.<\/p>\n
Simbarashe Chambati implicated his accomplices, resulting in their subsequent arrest.<\/p>\n
A 38 special Taurus revolver loaded with 3 spent cartridges, 8 x thunder T90 explosives, 2 x caped fuses, 6 x detonator cables, a bolt cutter, an okapi knife, 2 hard drives, one pair of gloves and a black masked wool hat were recovered following the arrest of the quartet.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Criminal Investigation Department, Detective Inspector, Provincial Community Relations Liaison Officer, Rachel Muteweri confirmed the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther investigations revealed that the recovered firearm was stolen by means of armed robbery on 22 March 2025 where they manhandled a security guard before disarming him of his service pistol.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey proceeded to blast open a safe before stealing US$1 620-00.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn one of the cases that occurred on 5 April 2025, the accused persons, armed with iron bars and a pistol, attacked a wholesale shop before getting away with property worth US$6110-00.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn 13 May 2025 around 0015 hours, the quartet struck again at another wholesale shop and got away with USD$2 500-00, two laptops, and a cellphone.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn 21 May 2025, armed with two pistols, they targeted a school and used explosives to blast open a safe, but could not find any valuables.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey later stole a laptop valued at $600-00. The gang continued its robbing spree, and on 24 May 2025, they pounced at a wholesale shop in Hatcliffe, Harare.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing explosives, they blasted the cash safe and got away with US$12 491-00.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quartet appeared before the Harare Regional Court on 23 June 2026, where Simbarashe Chambati, Thomas Marange, Tinashe Makara were convicted and sentenced to a total of 47 years imprisonment each while Amos Makara was convicted and sentenced to 59 years’ effective jail term.<\/p>\n
\u201cMagistrate Mrs Feresi Chakanyuka presided over the matter, and Mrs Tariro Jani appeared for the State.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Four-armed robbers have been convicted of six counts of armed robbery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1218,1221,1220,1219,1217],"class_list":["post-5938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-crime-and-courts-zimbabwe","tag-amos-makara","tag-rachel-muteweri","tag-simbarashe-chambati","tag-thomas-marange","tag-tinashe-makara"],"yoast_head":"\n