Police in Zimbabwe have arrested three men in connection with the murder of a South African tourist Conan Thomas at Hillside Dams in Bulawayo on Sunday.
Thomas, who was strolling at the picnic spot in the company of his girlfriend, her father and her two young sisters was shot dead by one of three assailants.
He was a sound and lighting student at Allenby College in Gauteng. Bulawayo police today confirmed the arrest of the three suspects but could not be drawn into giving more details about the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Leon Bezuidenhout, the father of Thomas’ girlfriend Megan said the police brought the suspects to his home early in the morning today. He positively identified them as the men who had shot his would-be son-in law before robbing them of property and cash valued at ZD12-million (about R11 760).
”The suspects have been arrested and the police brought them to my place for identification early today before taking them into custody,” said a grief-stricken Bezuidenhout.
He said the shortage of commercial flights in Zimbabwe had hampered the transportation of Thomas’ body to South Africa for burial.
”We are working out logistics on the transportation of the body to South Africa. We were looking forward to ferrying it sometime today or tomorrow but Air Zimbabwe has told us there are no commercial flights,” he said.
As a result, said Bezuidenhout, they were now arranging for the body to be transported by road through Zimbabwe’s Beitbridge border post.
Bezuidenhout, an official at a South African tourism company, said Thomas’ murder was typical of the violence he said was common in Zimbabwe. He said there was no hope of a revival of the tourism industry.
”It is so pathetic that tourists who bring in the much-needed foreign currency in Zimbabwe can be murdered like this. Zimbabwe’s tourism industry has ground to a halt because of the rampant lawlessness and if the government cannot stop it then there is no hope for its revival at all,” he said.
Late last year, an Australian tourist was killed by unknown assailants in the resort town of Victoria falls before being robbed of his possessions. – Sapa