Latest News Editor's Choice


News / National

Zimbabweans up for murder in Namibia

by Crime Reporter
12 Jul 2016 at 08:00hrs | Views
SIX Zimbabweans have been arrested in Namibia on allegations of murdering a 32-year-old man after they robbed him of his wallet and cellphone, as he was walking home from a beer drink at Walvis Bay.

According to New Era newspaper, the Regional Crime Investigations Coordinator for Erongo, Deputy Commissioner Ottilie Kashuupulwa said the six Zimbabweans are expected to appear before a Walvis Bay magistrate facing murder charges.

"The men are being held in connection with the death of 32-year-old Frans Simaneka Matheus, who was killed a week ago in Tutaleni, Walvis Bay," he said.

His body was discovered by police officers who were on patrol, and a brick stained with blood was found next to his body.

According to Deputy Comm Kashuupulwa, Matheus was at a shebeen in Tutaleni with friends that fateful Saturday evening before he decided to take a taxi home.

One of his friends allegedly gave him taxi fare but he struggled to get a taxi as it was late, and he decided to walk home.

Police believed that he was attacked and hit with a brick on the head, and robbed of his wallet and cellphone.

In April, Namibia deported 32 Zimbabwean nationals who were arrested for various offences, which include illegal entry and working illegally in that country.

The 32 were transported from Katima Mulilo to the Zimbabwean resort town of Victoria Falls by the Namibian Ministry of Home Affairs.

They were immediately arrested on arrival by authorities and slapped with a common charge of exiting the country illegally through ungazetted points.

All of them pleaded guilty to the crimes, which were committed between 2008 and February 2016.

Most of the accused persons told the court they worked as housemaids, gardeners, construction labourers and commercial sex workers, while others confessed to being employed informally in the agriculture sector.

They asked the court to be lenient with them considering that they were coming from the Namibian prison in Katima Mulilo and had endured assaults and other abuses during their incarceration.

Each of the deportees was slapped with a three-month prison term, which was wholly suspended on account of the fact that they were first offenders who had already served time in Namibia.

Source - the herald