WINDHOEK – A female congregant at a local church was admitted at a psychiatric unit yesterday, following reports she abused her nine-year-old daughter purportedly because the child is apparently ‘possessed by demons’ and the woman has also been making death threats towards her daughter.
It is alleged the mother whose name is being withheld to protect the child’s identity is employed in the Office of the Prime Minister as a cleaner and she insists her child is possessed by demons.
The mother made the girl to run in circles in the house before slapping her apparently in a bizarre attempt to cast demons from her child.
It is also alleged the mother has been starving the child, beating the child and returning with the child from church around 03h00 in the morning during weekdays while the child is supposed to go to school in the morning. New Era was informed there were days the girl would not attend school.
The woman is said to be preaching in shebeens around Havana informal settlements in the evening and taking her child along.
The child was removed from their shack in Havana on Sunday after members of women and men’s network against crime alerted the police about the woman’s worrying conducts.
According to Inspector Christina van Dunem Fonsech, they received reports about the woman’s unbecoming behaviour and removed the child on Sunday. The girl will be under the care of her father.
The woman who was under police guard on Monday and kept in a room while waiting for her family before she was admitted in hospital showed signs of a person who is mentally unwell. While under guard she kept reading verses from her Bible and she sang throughout while kept in the room alone.
She knelt and prayed and referred to herself as an angle of God. When approached she said she didn’t want to speak to anyone as her spirit could not allow her to do so.
She added that she only wanted to speak to her prophet Jackson Babi. “I don’t want to speak to you but my prophet Jackson Babi,” she said.
The child’s father who is now married to another woman accompanied the family to the hospital where the woman has been admitted. The man whose identity cannot be revealed stated he was not pleased to see the mother of his child in such condition.
He called on the Council of Churches in Namibia to intervene to regulate churches in the country. He stated his former girlfriend has been accusing their child of being possessed by demons and saying she will kill her. He said the mother made the child fast for a week and only drinking water.
The father said the woman who rents a shack was struggling as her salary was channeled to the church.
He added the former girlfriend didn’t have food at home. Another relative confirmed that when she was staying with the woman, they were not cooking at home because there was no food. “She does not take care of the child. Look at the child-she does not look like someone who is in Windhoek. The child does not even have school shoes. Look at what she is wearing,” said the father.