Dramatic scenes played out at Hemingways Mall yesterday morning after two gunmen attempted to rob Exact clothing store.
Customers and store managers were left terrified, with some shops shutting their doors immediately after one of the gunmen fired a single shot that hit the front wall of Browns Jewellers.
A woman employee from kids’ clothing shop Keedo then fought off one of the armed robbers to prevent a hostage drama.
Maureen Ndlovu, 39, originally from Benoni, emerged as a hero yesterday after saving another woman from the gunman.
The man, 26, who managed to free himself from an unarmed mall security team after firing the single shot, was stopped by Ndlovu at her clothing store, one floor above where the attempted robbery took place.
Before reaching Ndlovu, the armed robber tried to grab a baby from a mother’s trolley but after the woman screamed loudly, the suspect let the child go. He then allegedly ran towards another woman walking past Keedo.
However, a brave and quick-thinking Ndlovu leaned out of her shop and dragged the woman in with one arm while kicking and punching the suspect with the other. “I slammed the door on his hand and continued to press hard and he was forced to let go. I just had to fight because I’ve been robbed many times in this country so I felt that enough was enough,” she said.
Ndlovu, who told the Daily Dispatch that she had worked in some of the country’s biggest shopping malls, said she had witnessed some dangerous robberies by hardcore gangsters and that the Hemingways robber was an “amateur”.
“In 2014 I experienced two robberies in Southgate Mall, and two in Hyde Park a few years before that. I told him to voetsek because this is not a place to mess with. I punched him and kicked him, telling him to get off.”
Ndlovu said it was not the first time she had fought off an armed robber, after standing up to one at her house in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. “I was on my way to work and a guy at the gate pulled out a gun and stopped me. He demanded my bag but I decided to toss the bag up in the sky over the roof of my house and told him to get it.” The robber fled.
The two armed robbers entered the clothing store yesterday just before 11am and ordered staff to lie down. Unaware that someone had pressed a panic button, they proceeded with their plan.
One herded four employees to the back storeroom, where he restrained them with cable ties.
According to Hemingways spokeswoman Sharon Thompson, “employees activated the panic button, to which our security team immediately responded and the police were called.
“On entering the store, the security team found customers inside but no staff at the till points. Proceeding to the back of the store, our head of security found one armed man detaining four employees.
“His accomplice, who had been posing as a floor assistant, fled.”
The second would-be robber attempted to flee up the escalators, but was restrained by security staff before he could reach the top floor.
He then fired one shot in the air, freeing himself from the security personnel and sending everyone in the mall into a frenzy.
According to an eyewitness, Priscilla Koni, 55, an employee at Winston Saad furniture shop, the man then proceeded towards an elderly woman and tried to grab her. This was when Ndlovu stepped in.
The man fled towards the centre of the mall, where he was arrested by Constable Siyabulela Vusani from the Mdantsane police station, who was in the mall at the time of the robbery.
“The incident ended with his arrest by an on-duty policeman who was on the scene. No one was injured in the incident and nothing was taken from the store,” said Thompson.
Cambridge police spokesman Captain Mluleki Mbi confirmed that the police had arrested a man following the robbery.
“They didn’t manage to get anything from the store as they were disturbed by the mall security,” Mbi said.
A 9mm pistol and ammunition were recovered from the man.