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Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
BULAWAYO police have launched an investigation after two armed robbers raided an Alpha Omega Dairy warehouse and got away with $1,040 in cash and mobile phones.
Alpha Omega, which sells a range of dairy products, is owned by First Lady Grace Mugabe.

The company’s general manager Stanley Nhari confirmed the robbery, but referred questions to the police. Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo had not responded to our request for comment by late last night.

The raid shortly after 5.30PM on Wednesday left at least one employee being treated for shock. The robbers forced a security guard and an administrative clerk to pray as they made their get-away, according to sources close to the investigation.

Workers were preparing to close shop when two men arrived at the company’s distribution centre in the Thorngrove industrial area and asked to buy milk, yoghurts and dairy fruit juices.

Once inside, the robbers produced a pistol and demanded money from the clerk, only identified as Angeline. “They ordered her to surrender all the cash at the premises. One of the robbers then took a cash box containing about $660. He also searched her bag and took $380 cash and her cellphones,” said the source.

“The robbers kept demanding more money and Angeline pleaded with them to believe her that it had all been sent to the bank. She begged them to spare her life. She really believed they were going to kill her. She was later taken to hospital and treated for shock,” a source added.

The gunmen demanded to know who else was at the factory and after being told that all the other employees had knocked off except the security guard, one of the robbers went to the gate and grabbed the guard, identified only as Simbaza.

The gunmen, said the source, told their captives to close their eyes and start praying – apparently to keep them distracted while they escaped.

“They were instructed to raise their voices in prayer to show that they were telling the truth that there was no more money. The robbers sneaked out and the pair only discovered they were gone after a long period,” the source said.

Police are said to be pursuing “very good leads”.