Burglars break into Prof Moyo’s office

Source: Burglars break into Prof Moyo’s office | The Herald August 8, 2016

Freeman Razemba Crime Reporter—
Burglars broke into Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Professor Jonathan Moyo’s office at the New Government Complex on Saturday night and police have launched investigations to ascertain the motive behind the incident. An unknown brown substance was sprinkled on Prof Moyo’s chair. The assailants also broke into seven offices belonging to the ministry’s principal directors and directors. They gained entry into all the offices after tampering with the ceiling panels.

Various electrical gadgets and two laptops were stolen from the offices. The ministry’s acting principal director for administration and finance, Mr John Dewah, last night confirmed the incident. He said they suspected that the break-ins could have occurred on Saturday night.

“I discovered in the afternoon that most of our offices including that of the minister had been broken into. I then made a report to police at the police post here (New Government Complex),” he said.

He said police and other security agents attended the scene and they were still compiling and checking the items and gadgets that were stolen. Mr Dewah lost a laptop that he had left in his office.

He said they had since beefed up security at their offices as police investigations continue. In January, there was a break-in at VP Mnangagwa’s office at New Government Complex and Government expressed concern at the continuous break-ins and pledged to bring the culprits to book.

This was the sixth time unidentified culprits had tampered with VP Mnangagwa’s Government offices and at the Zanu-PF headquarters. VP Mnangagwa’s offices have been broken into four times at the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and once at Defence House when he was Defence Minister.

His offices at Zanu-PF Headquarters in Harare were broken into by unknown elements in 2014 who laced his desk with cyanide, poisoning his secretary who had to be hospitalised. In the latest break-in at the Government Complex, the culprits drilled a ceiling panel to gain entry. There were no indications of anything stolen.

In January last year, burglars broke into the office of the then Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development Dr Obert Mpofu, but police said nothing was stolen. Police said the motive of the break in could not be ascertained.

The burglar forced open three doors and tried to enter into Minister Mpofu’s office but failed. In August Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku’s Mashonganyika Building offices was broken into with the assailants stealing a desktop computer and a television set.

A few days after the break-in at the Supreme Court, four judges reportedly lost keys to their offices, a development that prompted the Judicial Service Commission to urgently request police security at Mashonganyika Building, which houses the Supreme and Constitutional courts.