Windhoek
Proceedings continued in the Windhoek High Court yesterday (Tuesday) with the start of the high treason convicts’ testimony in mitigation of the sentences they are to receive.
So far, the gory details of beatings with plastic sjamboks the convicted men endured at the hands of the police have emerged, but it was the shocking testimony of Ndala Saviour Tutalife – about the alleged assassination-style execution of ten San men – that made the court sit up in surprise.
During his testimony, Tutalife described how he was tortured for hours on end and was apparently left in a small room with a coffin that contained a human corpse. He described how the police, led by Warrant Officer Gideon Kashawa, beat him as soon as he reported himself to the police at Katima Mulilo after he was told police were looking for people who went to Botswana without legal documents.
As he had just returned from Botswana, where he visited his relatives, he reported himself to the Khuta, who in turn informed the police. He further informed the court that after he was tortured he was taken to Houmoed Police Training Camp outside Gobabis, where he “worked with the police in capturing alleged vehicle thieves.”
While at Houmoed, Tutalife said, he was visited by the chief investigator of the Caprivi treason case, the late Chief Inspector Abraham Maasdorp and then Chief Inspector Dumeni Popiyanawa, who wanted him to become a State witness.
When he refused – as he could not betray people who have done nothing to him – they allegedly took him to a 4×4 bakkie with ten San men in it, bound to each other with handcuffs.
He went on to recall that they drove a few kilometres outside Houmoed, where the San men were told to disembark while he was chained to the vehicle. He then described in vivid detail how a certain Popiyanawa took his 9mm pistol and shot three of the men one by one. He said Maasdorp then took the gun and shot the rest of the men. This was done to show him what they do to people who do not co-operate, Tutalife told the court.
The treason case continues today with another of Ilse Aggenbach’s clients set to testify. Earlier Chris Ntaba, another of Aggenbach’s clients, also took the stand and told the court of unbearable beatings with plastic sjamboks by members of the Special Field Force of Nampol.
Both did not testify in their own defence during the main trial and were part of the men that lodged a challenge to the High Court’s jurisdiction to try them. They remain steadfast in their belief that the Zambezi Region – formerly known as Caprivi – is not now and never was a part of Namibia.
Judge Elton Hoff convicted them of having taken part in the bloody attacks on Katima Mulilo on August 2, 1999, which claimed the lives of eight people and caused extensive damage to government properties, including the NBC office and the local police station.
Thirty of the original 122 that were charged with one count of high treason, nine counts of murder and 240 counts of attempted murder were convicted – albeit on only 90 of the attempted murder counts – at the end of one the longest judgments to have seen the light of day in Namibia.
Judge Hoff discharged 43 of the accused after the State closed its case and the defense applied for a Rule 174 discharge.
Twenty-two treason suspects died in custody in the course of the marathon trial that took 16 years to come to a conclusion.