Eleven suspects, among them four Zimbabwean police officers, who are accused of allegedly being involved in a spate of armed robberies along the Beit Bridge-Bulawayo road in which they targeted mostly foreign travellers, appeared in court of Friday, 6 February.

The suspects, Nhire Shava (39), Salatiel Marima (34), Robert Mudhumbu (23) and Norman Tsiga (25) all police officers, Shepherd Chekeche (28) James Marande (29), Joseph Mariwo (23), Ashton Panganai (27), Francis Gapare (24), Patrick Shiri ((24) and Chikomborero Guzha (27), appeared before Beit Bridge magistrate Mr Ignatio Mhene on charges of armed robbery and theft. The case was postponed to 13 February and no bail was granted to the accused persons.

The court heard that on 20 December last year, the accused teamed up and drove to the Jopembe area, outside Beit Bridge town, where they allegedly spotted a South African motorist whose vehicle had developed a mechanical fault. The victim had groceries in his car. They then approached him on the pretext that they intended to assist him. They allegedly demanded to inspect his declaration documents after having produced their police ID cards.

The victim was robbed of US$8000 and R2 780 in cash, after which he was ordered to offload his goods at gunpoint. The robbers allegedly loaded the loot into their car and sped off at high speed.

The State alleges that on January 4, the accused again went to Mtetengwe village where they mounted an illegal road block along the Beit Bridge-Bulawayo road. They intercepted a Gauteng-registered Nissan bakkie, which was loaded with groceries. They allegedly demanded to see the victim’s declaration forms, but after the man had complied, one of the suspects then pulled out a rifle and they robbed the complainant of his cell phones, several bags of stock feed, R12 000 and building material worth R17 500.

Soon after committing the offence, they fled into the bush. A report was then made to the police, leading to the arrest of other suspects, who in turn implicated the police officers.

Police managed to recover several electrical goods, as well as a vehicle worth US$5500 which was bought using the stolen money.