A GWANDA man believed to be a gold dealer was found dead in Spitzkop suburb yesterday morning in what residents suspect to be a case of robbery and murder.
ALBERT NCUBE OWN CORRESPONDENT
The man identified as Petros Sibanda by a relative, was found lying in a pool of blood by the roadside with visible head injuries that seemed to have been inflicted with a sharp object.
When Southern Eye arrived at the scene at around 6am, scores of shocked residents and small-scale miners had gathered around the body waiting for the police to arrive and take the corpse away.
Matabeleland South provincial police spokesperson Inspector Philisani Ndebele confirmed the incident, but could not give further details saying investigations were still underway.
Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said the deceased was a well-known gold dealer and had been last seen on Tuesday night carrying large sums of money.
“From the injuries he sustained in the head, it’s clear that he was attacked by robbers who were with him last night. It’s unbelievable that he is gone,” a friend said.
Shocked residents urged Zesa to electrify the area, which has been without electricity for more than a decade, saying criminals were taking advantage of darkness to attack people.
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“This could have been avoided had there been some street lights. This should now push Zesa to electrify the area to avoid more unnecessary loss of lives here,” a resident Mfundo Moyo said.
There were also calls by some residents for the police to vet youths in Gwanda as most of them do not have identity documents and may be on the police’s wanted list of criminals.
Thousands of youths from around the country have in the past few years descended on the mining town in search of gold, but some of them have since turned to crime amid dwindling gold deposits in the town.
