NUST Student Narrates How His Family Was Attacked By Armed Robbers
Nqobile Ngwenya, a National University of Science and Technology (NUST) student has narrated how his family was attacked by 10 armed robbers on Monday morning at home in Cowdray Park.
The 23-year-old who is a final year Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering student at NUST still had his face covered in scars, bandages and stitches when he spoke to Chronicle.
He said his family went to bed at around 10 PM on Sunday after he was done with his presentation that he was supposed to submit the next day.
At around 2 AM, the armed robbers pounced.
He was axed eight times on the head. He narrated:
At around 2 in the morning, I was awakened by my mother screaming. I then rushed to her room to see what was happening and surprisingly I found a man in her room who was choking her and pointing a knife at her. When my younger sister heard our mother screaming, she ran and hid behind a couch in the sitting room. The moment I tried to talk to the man to let go of my mother, the other men came from behind me and axed my head and I fell down. They did not give me any chance at that moment as they also hit me with sticks, planks and one of them took a garden fork that was in the house and plucked out my eye and left it hanging.
He also has injuries on his neck, shoulders, arms and hands that he used to try and defend himself with.
He said every time he told the robbers to leave his mother alone, he was struck with an axe on the head and beaten up. He said he was struck about eight times on the head.
His mother, Mrs Nokuthula Ngwenya (46), said the men were not wearing any masks to cover their faces but they couldn’t identify any of them.
Mrs Ngwenya said she thinks the armed robbers came with a car as they were passing goods they stole from the house over the fence.
She said they took her passport and national identification card, cooking pots a 42-inch plasma television, a Huawei P9, a mobicel and Nokia 1280 phones and a 12 volts light solar battery.
The armed robbers went and came back for the second time after about 20 minutes demanding that she gives them her daughter who is 12 years old but she refused and they went away.
Mrs Ngwenya said her daughter is traumatised by the whole incident and does not want to stay in the family house that they were attacked in anymore.
She said neighbours heard them screaming but they were afraid to come out as most of them were ladies and there was nothing they could possibly do.
Nqobile was taken to Mpilo hospital at around past three. From Mpilo Central Hospital, he was referred to the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) for further treatment.
Mrs Ngwenya appealed to people for assistance to cover medical bills for her son. She can be reached on 0778 096 871 or 0773 738 599.
