Johannesburg – A Zimbabwean criminal found out the hard way that crime does not pay when he was shot dead in Hillbrow this morning by a man he tried to rob unaware that his intended victim was armed with a gun.

According to eyewitnesses, the dead man(pictured above) was identified by some at the crime scene as a Zimbabwean from Bulawayo.He was allegedly part of a notorious gang of robbers who were involved in attacking lovers at local parks and robbing shops in the Hillbrow, Berea and Yeoville areas.

A witness at the scene told me when the deceased tried to rob his killer,his friends were following him closely.The would be victim of the robbery produced his pistol and shot the robber in the chest and died on the spot.When the police arrived at the scene,he was already dead.

When they saw their colleague being shot his three friends fled leaving him to die alone. Hillbrow once a bustling cosmopolitan neighbourhood during apartheid, is now described as the crime capital of Johannesburg.
The area which has been dominated by Zimbabweans for the past 20 years has now been infiltrated by dangerous and heartless drug lords from Nigeria who are associated with hijacking of flats,running of brothels and drug trade.

Immigrants and war refugees from Somalia, Congo and outside Africa have also made Hillbrow their new home.

“Our boys have started robbing people so that they go home for Christmass with a lot of money.Its sad for his parents because now he will return home in a coffin,” said one of the Zimbabweans who saw the body of the robber.

According to another source, the dead man was also part of a gang suspected to have attacked two couples who were picknicking at Rhodes Park in Kensington recently. During the Kensington attack, the Zimbabwean criminals had the hands of two men tied to their backs and then threw them into the nearby lake where they drowned.

They then raped the girlfriend of one of the victims. The other woman managed to escape. Police spokesman Lungelo Dlamini confirmed that the two suspects who have been arrested in connection with the Rhodes Park robbery were from Zimbabwe.
by Thabo Kunene. Source: Thabo Kunene