I am sorry dad: Inmate

ONE of the most notorious armed robbers who made headlines for robbing people of their assets has finally realised that his actions were uncalled for and said he deserves to be behind bars.

Blessing Ncube (30) made these remarks and asked for forgiveness from his family for soiling their name in their neighbourhood.

In an interview, Ncube told B-Metro that he deserved to be languishing in prison as he had turned into an animal that had tarnished the image of the Ncube family.

“Each time I think about my behaviour before I was sentenced to 48 months in prison, I see this animal that was causing pain and suffering to different people out there. This behaviour started soon after the outbreak of Covid-19 as people were no longer allowed to operate normally and I could not work as a builder.

“The locking down of operations made it very difficult for me to work as I am a father of two children so things became hard for me such that I could not feed my family like I had been doing before,” he said.

Ncube said from interacting with different people in his neighbourhood of Old Magwegwe he met some friends who introduced him to a quick-money making project of theft. In their operations they terrorised a lot of people in different parts of Bulawayo.

“With the biblical background that I was brought up under a lot of people could not believe that poverty had turned me into an animal that was even prepared to drink fresh blood gushing out from a human body.

“The friends that I met during the first lockdown trained me to be one of the most dangerous people in the community and I really enjoyed what we were doing as it was one of the fastest ways of making money so that I could take good care of my family, even though that was short-lived,” he said.

In their last operation the crew had driven along Victoria Falls road with the intention of breaking into one of the shops, but they were caught by the police in the process of stealing.

“It was one of my friends, who was also the gang leader, who came up with the idea of breaking into one of the shops that was located along the Victoria Falls highway. We drove as per our plan and it was around midnight when we arrived at the scene of crime.

“When we got there, we broke into the shop and we managed to steal property worth US$400 and as we were packing our loot, we never thought we had been spotted by the vigilant police officers of that area,”he said.

Ncube said after having stolen property that ranged from solar panels and groceries, they rushed to their getaway car, but in the process, they got the surprise of their lives, when they heard gunshots and an instruction to drop everything on the ground and put their hands in the air.

“I had never encountered such a situation my brother because even if I was robbing people I had never seen a gun and in this incident I heard the sound of guns as police officers were getting ready to shoot any of my gang members who attempted to run away.

“As a team we complied with the demands of the police officers and that’s when we were arrested and the issue was investigated before it was taken to the courts for trial,” he said.

The inmate said in court, it was proven beyond reasonable doubt that the gang had committed the offence and the magistrate found them guilty and imprisoned them.

“Every time I committed a crime, I never thought that one day I would find myself in prison and today I am at Bulawayo Prison where I am paying for all my sins and during my first days here, I was really stressed because I would not spend a day without seeing my kids.

“But with time I got to understand that I was a thief that had been convicted by the courts for a crime that I had committed so it was high time I pay for that sin,” he said.

The inmate said he was really disappointed with himself as he had put his father’s name into disrepute especially in their neighbourhood as people now viewed them as a family of thieves and armed robbers.

“The only thing that I am asking from you as B-Metro news crew is to visit my parents in Magwegwe suburb and tell them that I said I am sorry for everything that I did. I know God is going to bless you because I really want to be reconnected to my family and you are my only hope on that issue.

“I am now a changed man and I now know the difference between good and bad, right and the wrong so I need my family to give me another chance,” he said.

Station Rehabilitation Officer Lamarck Mazaka said it was high time the Ncube family reconsidered reconnecting with their son who is serving for the crimes that he committed.

“In order to reduce the cases of re-offending, families have got the duty to forgive their family members and that is the starting point when it comes to the issue of a successful rehabilitation and re-integration of an inmate back into society,” he said.

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