Rundu
The Sikongo twins, popularly known as ‘the Taramo twins’, on Tuesday appeared in the Rundu Magistrate’s Court for vandalizing a shopping mall.
The incident, which saw the Rundu shopping mall being damaged, occurred on Sunday morning.
The young entrepreneurs Phillip Sikongo, 26, and his twin brother Andre Sikongo Sikongo are popularly known as ‘the Taramo twins’ for their popular TV show ‘Taramo Live.’
Taramo Live profiled businesses to link them up with markets while viewers participated in SMS competitions to earn prizes offered by the programme sponsors.
Taramo Live was the winner of Namibia’s Creative Business Cup in 2012. The show was aired on NBC TV back in 2011 to 2012. The twins were the presenters of the show, which came to an end when the two were diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2013.
The brothers were recently admitted to a psychiatric ward in Windhoek. They were not discharged but managed to escape over the weekend and came to Rundu where they vandalized the newly built Rundu shopping mall on Sunday. They broke windows, doors and Bank Windhoek and FNB ATMs. They were arrested by the police.
During their first appearance the twins went crazy in a fully packed courtroom, claiming the case was “a corruption case”.
“There is corruption going on here in Rundu,” one screamed.
The twins demanded that their case be transferred to Khomas Region, claiming “the magistrate and everyone are corrupt”.
“People say we are sick, yes we are sick with bipolar but we know what we’re doing. We wanted to send a message for people to hear. They took us to Windhoek Central Hospital, they injected us every day, for nothing, this is corruption. This magistrate cannot hear this case, who knows maybe you were also paid off,” said one of the twins.
“Taramo and the Rundu Town Council owe us N$600 000,” said the twins who created a website for the Rundu Town Council. They claim they were not paid for their work.
“I have seen the conduct of the accused persons in court. My conclusion is an obvious one, I do not think that the accused are sane. I think the application to refer the accused for mental observation is well grounded,” said magistrate Ileni Velikoshi in court.
The case was remanded to December 2 for further investigation and for the accused to undergo further mental observation, as the court believes the accused are a danger to society. They will thus remain in custody.
New Era was reliably informed the twin brothers have been transferred back to Windhoek for further psychiatric evaluation.