BY HARRIET CHIKANDIWA
A suspicious fire last week destroyed prominent Harare physician Johannes Marisa’s house in Ruwa’s Riverside suburb in a suspected act of robbery.
Marisa, who is also the president of the Medical and Dental Private Practitioners of Zimbabwe Association (MDPPZA), told Standardpeople that he received a call while he was at his clinic in Kuwadzana after the double-storey house went on fire.
“I received a call from my wife informing me that the house was on fire just after 3pm yesterday [Friday],” Marisa said.
“The fire gutted the top part of the building, causing extensive damage to the main bedroom and other rooms.
“It took nearly two hours to extinguish the blaze, but the damage had been done. I lost almost everything in the inferno. The children who were upstairs had to jump through the windows into the arms of the neighbours who had come to assist.”
Marisa said no one was injured and the cause of the fire was yet to be established as of yesterday.
“We are not sure of the cause of the fire, but from preliminary investigations, it looks like a robbery. There was money [in US dollars] stashed in a bag that disappeared from the wardrobe. There was no trace of that money, save for a few notes in local currency that we found later,” he said.
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There was an attempted robbery at Marisa’s Kuwadzana clinic two weeks ago.
Contacted for comment, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said he was not yet aware of the incident and referred this publication to the Harare provincial police spokesperson who could not be reached yesterday.
Marisa runs Westview Medical Group comprising clinics and maternity hospitals in Zimre Park, Ruwa and Kuwadzana.
