WINDHOEK – One of the accused in the on-going murder, robbery and rape trial currently in the Windhoek High Court told a fellow inmate that he was not worried about the case of a girl he stabbed to death, but about a case in which he killed a white man, Judge Nate Ndauendapo heard yesterday.
Erwin Khumub, who shared a cell with Hendrik Nowoseb during December 2014, told the judge that he did not care about the case in which he stabbed his former girlfriend to death in her hospital bed after he had stabbed her the previous evening.
He was already sentenced to an effective 44 years in jail for that murder conviction. According to the witness, Nowoseb told him he is not worried about that murder, but about the murder of a white man.
He further narrated to the court that Nowoseb told him that he and two friends jumped into the yard of a house in Outjo and sat in the dark waiting for the house shop to close at around 10h00.
When they saw the “boervrou” (white lady) come out to lock the shop, they attacked her and forced their way into the shop, he told the court. Nowoseb did, however, not mention his accomplices at the time, Khumub told the court.
He said he then wrote a short note to the police in which he explained the killer of the white man, which the police are looking for is in their cell. The letter, which was written in Afrikaans, said the killer of the “boer” (white man) is in their cell and that he wanted to talk to the investigating officer.
Later that day, he was called from his cell and told that the officer investigating that murder can only see him the next day. When asked why he informed the police of the conversation he had with Nowoseb, he told the judge that he was afraid as a “dangerous man was in their midst”.
He further told the court he was called from the cell the next day and taken to the investigating officer, Deon Marais, who he told everything that Nowoseb had said to him. Marais then asked him to find out from Nowoseb who his accomplices were and he complied and provided him with the names of Ferdinand Angula (40) and Lourens Aib (23).
All three men denied guilt to charges of murder, attempted murder, rape and robbery with aggravating circumstances at the start of their trial last week. According to the charge sheet, they killed 71-year-old Gerhardus Petrus Koekemoer at his house in Outjo on October 25, 2014, where after they tried to kill Zenobia van der Merwe by stabbing her with a knife and strangling her, causing her to lose consciousness.
It is further alleged that Aib raped the complainant with the assistance of both his co-accused.
They are also accused of robbing Van der Merwe of N$251 in cash and recharge vouchers valued at N$465, an unknown amount of loose cigarettes and cigarettes in packets, and unknown amount of sweets and a bunch of keys.
Apollos Shimakeleni is representing Angula, Vanessa Kauta is representing Aib and Natji Tjirera is on record for Nowoseb.