HARARE – A Harare InDrive driver was tied up and robbed at gunpoint after accepting a US$10 booking from a passenger who presented himself as a Spanish gold buyer before changing the route and attacking him in the capital’s northern leafy suburbs.
Sean Moyo was waiting near Avondale Shopping Centre when he accepted the trip request from one Jitendra Moorjani Melwani. Melwani arrived with a middle-aged Zimbabwean man he identified as Tom. The booking was initially for a journey into Harare’s city centre, but the trip changed direction after Melwani received a telephone call and asked the driver to travel towards Highlands.
The route change took Moyo away from the busy shopping area and towards quieter streets. During the journey, Melwani reportedly told him that he was from Spain and had come to Zimbabwe to buy at least 7kg of gold. The conversation appeared ordinary as the vehicle moved towards the northern suburbs, but the passenger later produced a pistol near Newlands shops and ordered Moyo to stop.
Moyo said the gunman demanded the vehicle keys, tied his hands behind his back with a rope and forced him out of the car. In his statement to the police, he said: “He then instructed me to stop the car and give him the keys. He then tied my hands with a rope at the back and forced me out of the car.”
The vehicle, a silver Toyota Passo with registration number AGX1042, was driven away after Moyo was left behind. Police records show that it was found abandoned a few hours later near Highlands shops. The recovery of the car did not restore everything taken during the attack. Moyo said he was searched and robbed of US$250, which was kept in a brown wallet, as well as an iPhone 12.
Moyo told investigators that he had not known Melwani before accepting the booking. The attack has placed renewed attention on the dangers faced by drivers who depend on ride-hailing platforms for their income and regularly accept passengers they have never met. Drivers can receive several bookings in a day, often moving between busy commercial areas and unfamiliar residential streets with little opportunity to assess the people entering their vehicles.
The alleged use of a false business story has also added a disturbing detail to the case. Melwani reportedly spoke about a gold-buying transaction and a business partner’s wife whom he wanted to meet in Highlands. The explanation gave the journey a commercial purpose while allowing the passenger to redirect the vehicle. It was only near Newlands that the trip turned into an armed confrontation, according to the account recorded by Moyo.
The incident came as police are dealing with a separate series of attacks on InDrive operators in Harare. During July and August 2026, detectives linked a 23-year-old Crowborough man, Tanaka Bright Murasi, to a robbery spree in which passengers allegedly used the platform to arrange trips before attacking drivers and taking cash and mobile phones.
Three other suspects, known by the names Kedha, Slim Giant and Rasta, were identified as Murasi’s alleged accomplices. Police said the three were still at large. The investigation moved forward after detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department’s Vehicle Theft Squad in Harare tracked one of the mobile phones stolen during the robberies. The phone’s movements led officers to Murasi, who was arrested on August 15, 2026.
Detective Inspector Rachel Muteweri, the CID spokesperson, said Murasi was implicating the other suspects and confirmed that the accomplices had not yet been arrested. The arrests have given investigators a possible link between a number of attacks in which drivers were approached through the same digital booking system and then robbed after beginning the journeys.
The police account of the alleged group’s method was straightforward. Passengers requested rides through InDrive and presented themselves as ordinary customers. Once the driver was on the road, the passengers allegedly turned on him, taking cash and mobile phones. The use of the application allowed the suspects to choose the time and location of each meeting, while the driver was placed in a vulnerable position inside a moving vehicle.
The robbery of Moyo was different in its details but followed the same broad pattern: a passenger made contact through a ride request, gained access to a vehicle and then used a change in circumstances to move the driver away from the original destination. In Moyo’s case, the alleged claim about gold and the proposed meeting in Highlands preceded the display of the pistol and the forced removal of the driver.
Another Harare driver, Gabriel Chivanga, was attacked after accepting a booking from Mufakose to Budiriro. The 36-year-old arrived at Mukonono Road after receiving a call from a person who said he wanted to hire the vehicle. The caller then directed him to pick up three more passengers at nearby flats.
Four men eventually occupied the car, with one sitting in the front passenger seat and three in the back. They told Chivanga that they wanted to be dropped at Old Marimba flats along Mukonono Road. During the journey, one of the men seated at the back said he had reached his destination and wanted to get out. As Chivanga responded, he was sprayed in the face with pepper spray.
The attackers opened the driver’s door, pushed him out and sped away in a blue Toyota Aqua with registration number AFW 7542. The vehicle belonged to Molline Manyati of Tynwald. A mobile phone connected to the car’s tracking system was also taken. Police put the total value of the stolen property at US$6,580, and Harare provincial police spokesperson Inspector Luckmore Chakanza confirmed that the case was under investigation.
The Mufakose attack showed how quickly a normal booking could become a coordinated robbery. The caller first established the trip, then arranged for additional passengers to join the vehicle. The group was already inside the car when the attack began, leaving the driver outnumbered and exposed. The pepper spray was used at close range, allowing the men to take control of the vehicle within moments.
A similar pattern was reported in an earlier Harare attack involving Mannex Nyengedza, a 29-year-old InDrive driver from Sunningdale. Nyengedza accepted a booking from the central business district with four passengers. As the vehicle approached Old Mazowe Road, the passenger seated in front reportedly engaged the handbrake while a passenger in the rear produced a pistol.
Nyengedza was forced out of the vehicle and suffered a swollen forehead. The attackers took his Itel P36 mobile phone, US$380 in cash and a red Toyota Passo belonging to his employer. The vehicle, registration number AGN 1950, was later found abandoned and undamaged in a drainage ditch along Lorraine Drive.
The attacks have also included cases with fatal consequences. In November 2024, InDrive driver Artwell Nyamayaro, who was 24 years old and was based in Hatcliffe, was found dead in Harare’s central business district. Blood-stained seats were found in his Mazda Demio. In May 2026, another operator, Brian Nandana, 30, was found murdered in a shallow grave in Warren Park Hills, and a suspect, who was Brian’s friend was arrested by police before confessing that he had beheaded his friend Brian and drank his blood after the heinous act.
Those cases have deepened concern among drivers who work long hours and rely on app bookings to find passengers. Many operate vehicles owned by other people, meaning a robbery can leave them facing the loss of personal property, income and the trust of the vehicle owner. Even when a car is recovered, phones, cash and other belongings may not be found, while drivers can be left dealing with injuries and fear after an attack.
The case involving Moyo has further highlighted the risks around route changes and passengers who introduce new explanations after a trip has begun. A booking for town became a journey towards Highlands after a telephone call. The passenger then described a high-value gold purchase and a meeting with a business associate’s wife. Near Newlands, the explanation ended with a pistol, a rope and the loss of control of the vehicle.
Police investigations into the reported robbery spree were continuing, with Murasi in custody and efforts under way to locate Kedha, Slim Giant and Rasta. Moyo’s account has added another armed attack to a growing list of incidents involving ride-hailing drivers in Harare, while the recovery of his Toyota Passo has done little to lessen the seriousness of the assault.
For drivers working across Avondale, Newlands, Highlands, Mufakose, Budiriro and other parts of the capital, the latest cases have turned an ordinary passenger booking into a matter of personal safety. The men and women behind the wheel are not only transporting customers; they are also entering unfamiliar situations in which a passenger’s identity, destination and intentions can change within minutes.