The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Tuesday, December 22, 1992 — The Belmont branch of Zimbank in Bulawayo was robbed of $178 000 on Saturday morning, police reported yesterday.

According to the police the armed robbery took place at about 11.00AM just when the bank was about to close. Police could not disclose how many people were involved in the robbery or say what type of weapons were used.

“At this point we cannot give details but we can certainly confirm that the money was robbed from the bank. Police investigations are in progress,” he said.

Police said they would only be in a position to give details once the investigations into the case were complete.

Officials at Zimbank, Belmont branch, refused to talk to the Press about the robbery. They referred all questions to the bank's head office in Harare.

“You can ask me anything but not about the missing cash. The answer to all your questions is I don't know,” said a senior official of the bank.

Contacted for comment, a senior official of the bank at the Harare head office confirmed that a large sum of money was missing from the Belmont branch of the bank, hinting that the money went missing as a result of reasons other than robbery.

The officials said they would issue a full statement today as some senior personnel of the bank were still in a meeting.

This is the second robbery this year on a bank in Belmont. Early this year Standard Chartered Bank was robbed of $50 000 at gunpoint.