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Commission of crime had become a career, or lifestyle for five men from the Midlands Province.

Ntandoyenkosi Sidumbu (23) and Bongeni Tshuma (28) both of Msilahobe Village, Chief Malisa, Silobela, Kelvin Masuku Moyo (18), Lameck Busiso Masuku Moyo (30) of Somabhula Wida Farm Plot 8 and Sibangilizwe Nyathi allegedly committed a staggering 200 crimes in various parts of the country, among them rape, theft, unlawful entry and armed robbery.  They robbed individuals of their property and mines of their gold.

They raped and attacked police officers in their reign of terror and were able to buy a vehicle from the proceeds of crime.

The careers of four of them ended with their arrests in Gweru on Friday, their boss Nyathi being arrested on Sunday in Ntabazinduna, Matabeleland South as he apparently sought luck charms from an inyanga.

Upon their arrest Sidumbu, Tshuma, Moyo and Lameck are said to have confessed to 33 crimes committed around Gweru alone. Police sources said detectives solved numerous robbery and rape offences in areas including Bulawayo, Nkayi, Murehwa, Shangani, Gwanda, Silobela, Gweru, Chegutu and Kwekwe following the arrest of the suspects.

Sidumbu, Tshuma, Moyo and Lameck appeared before a Bulawayo regional magistrate on Monday and pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and robbery.  Mr Chrispen Mberewere, the magistrate sentenced them to a total 100 years in prison for gang-raping a woman and robbing three people in Bulawayo’s Mahatshula suburb.  He gave three of them the maximum penalty for rape which is 20 years imprisonment and 10 years each for the four for robbery.

Nyathi is waiting for his time in the dock as he is still in hospital, nursing wounds after he was shot by the police when they arrested him.

“The manner in which the woman was robbed and later raped is very humiliating. She will carry the trauma until she dies. You are heartless criminals. You forced your victim to undress and took turns to rape her,” said Mr Mberewere.

“The court is not impressed by your claim that the absentee co-accused Sibangilizwe Nyathi is the one who enticed grown men like you to commit all these crimes. You are therefore sentenced to 20 years imprisonment each.”

We hail the police for working so hard in accounting for this extremely dangerous gang, thus putting an end to their two years of crime.  It is always a challenge for police to arrest people like the quintet because the criminals would be armed too.  On his arrest, Nyathi had a pistol, which he could have used to shoot at his arresting officers, even killing them.  Therefore we commend the police for, once again arresting yet another dangerous criminal gang.  This re-asserts the good record that they developed over the years in fighting crime.

Every law abiding citizen will be pleased also with the speed with which the four criminals were taken to court. Friday they were arrested, spent the weekend in police custody, Monday they were at court and by the end of that day they were starting life where they actually belong — in prison.

The court also meted deserved punishments for the four felons for the four charges they were facing. We know that they still have scores of more charges to go, seeing that they are alleged to have committed 200 crimes and that they admitted to 33 in Gweru alone.  This means that if they appear in court for all their crimes, it is likely each of them will get a lifetime in jail.  They belong there.  They are savages who must be locked away so that life goes on peacefully for everyone out here.  Their victims will be haunted for the rest of their lives given the experiences they had at the hands of the gang.  It is worse for the woman they gang-raped in Bulawayo in April.  Rape is bad enough, but when it is gang-rape, the emotional and physical pain that a woman suffers cannot be captured in words.

As for Nyathi, the suspected director of operations for the syndicate, we wait for the courts to hand out a punishment that he deserves.

The hefty punishment that Sidumbu, Tshuma, Moyo and Lameck got on Monday sends the message across that crime does not pay.  It will always end in deserved agony for the criminal.  Magic amulets and talismans seem to work for a limited time but they, without fail, expire.

That is the message that must go out there to would-be criminals. We also want to urge the police and courts to continue collaborating the way they did in dealing with the five-man gang, not the discord we have had before when police complained that the courts sometimes release on bail hardcore criminals who revert to crime as soon as they are bailed.