Word on the street is that Kwekwe School was robbed of an undisclosed amount of money last Wednesday afternoon.

Eyewitness accounts state that sometime in the afternoon, a group of masked gunmen descended on the school office and raided the safe at gunpoint. It was late in the afternoon and the only pupils present were the senior classes who were working on their revision. It is said the thugs then went and demanded that all teachers and pupils were ordered to lie down and the teachers were robbed of their personal belongings including cash, cell-phones and laptops. A group of courageous pupils then rushed to close the school gates while the robbery was in progress and almost successfully effected a citizens arrest but not only were they too few, they were a bit helpless against the gunners and reports say they received a thorough beating from gun butts by the thugs. A number of pupils we injured during the robbery, and fortunately none seriously. However all the pupils were injured psychologically as no children under any circumstances are supposed to undergo such trauma. These are the scars they will carry all their lives and which you cannot put monetary value on. What one does not understand is what sort of cruel people would engage on such a mission? This is one in a spate of several school raids by armed robbers in the last few months. Notable robberies include that at Churchill High School in Harare and Bumburwi Primary School in Gweru. Police could neither deny or confirm the incident. Our call on them is to better protect us from such violent incidences, especially our children. Whilst unemployment is at an all time high and poverty is undoubtedly resident in most of our homes, to what levels of criminality are we going to stoop. Wrong is wrong, despite the circumstance or the cause. People of Kwekwe, we cannot allow this to happen in our peaceful town, let alone to children. Our call is to take the leaf of the youngsters who tried to Stop the thugs. We cannot be intimidated by a few miscreants. We cannot allow them to instill fear in us and terrorise us. What we don't realise is that there more of us than them and our strength is in our numbers. They cannot kill us all and we can STOP them. Lets restart the neighbourhood watch committees to protect our homes. The police may or may not assist us but that is their issue. We will protect ourselves. I hope government will send through experts to help the children affected psychologically. Things like this must not go unpunished. Word on the street is that Kwekwe School was robbed of an undisclosed amount of money last Wednesday afternoon. Eyewitness accounts state that sometime in the afternoon, a group of masked gunmen descended on the school office and raided the safe at gunpoint. It was late in the afternoon and the only pupils present were the senior classes who were working on their revision. It is said the thugs then went and demanded that all teachers and pupils were ordered to lie down and the teachers were robbed of their personal belongings including cash, cell-phones and laptops. A group of courageous pupils then rushed to close the school gates while the robbery was in progress and almost successfully effected a citizens arrest but not only were they too few, they were a bit helpless against the gunners and reports say they received a thorough beating from gun butts by the thugs. A number of pupils we injured during the robbery, and fortunately none seriously. However all the pupils were injured psychologically as no children under any circumstances are supposed to undergo such trauma. These are the scars they will carry all their lives and which you cannot put monetary value on.

What one does not understand is what sort of cruel people would engage on such a mission? This is one in a spate of several school raids by armed robbers in the last few months. Notable robberies include that at Churchill High School in Harare and Bumburwi Primary School in Gweru. Police could neither deny or confirm the incident. Our call on them is to better protect us from such violent incidences, especially our children. Whilst unemployment is at an all time high and poverty is undoubtedly resident in most of our homes, to what levels of criminality are we going to stoop. Wrong is wrong, despite the circumstance or the cause. People of Kwekwe, we cannot allow this to happen in our peaceful town, let alone to children. Our call is to take the leaf of the youngsters who tried to Stop the thugs. We cannot be intimidated by a few miscreants. We cannot allow them to instill fear in us and terrorise us. What we don't realise is that there more of us than them and our strength is in our numbers. They cannot kill us all and we can STOP them. Lets restart the neighbourhood watch committees to protect our homes. The police may or may not assist us but that is their issue. We will protect ourselves. I hope government will send through experts to help the children affected psychologically. Things like this must not go unpunished.