Rundu
Two men were last Thursday sentenced to 12-years imprisonment each in the Rundu Regional Court for raping a woman at Sun City at the informal settlement of Sikanduko.
The rape for which the duo were convicted took place outside Rundu in August 2012.
Sam Robson Mutiwa,26, and Sizevalaud Natangwe Shetulimba,28, both Namibians were each sentenced to direct prison of 12 years by Regional Court Magistrate Bongani Ndlovu in the case in which Albert Titus prosecuted.
Both the accused were represented by Leon Kabajani on an instructions from the Directorate of Legal Aid.
During the trial the victim being the only witness the state had, had testified in the Rundu Regional Court that on the night of 20 August 2012, she went to a bar in Rundu and she had a drink and wanted to go home after feeling a bit drunk.
One of the accused had a taxi and she asked for a ride home to Tuhingereni location and the accused driver and his friend instead drove her to Sun City in the Sikanduko south of Rundu. She told the driver he was taking a wrong way and the driver and his friend ignored her pleas and they dragged her out of the car into a corrugated shack where they took turns and raped her. She said the room was so dark and she could not scream at that moment as she feared for her life.
Each of the accused raped her twice and threw her with her clothes out of the shack after they had satisfied themselves.
She walked to the nearest service station at Engen service station where she got a taxi to the police station.
However the accused persons told the court a different story, they claimed they had agreed with the victim earlier that night that they both sleep with her for N$100 and after they both slept with her twice that night she asked for an additional N$50 extra and they then told her they only had N$100 and that she could come back the next day for the remaining money. According to them she agreed and asked for a N$100 if she came to collect the next morning.
Kabajani who defended the two accused argued the woman became bitter because she did not get the extra money and she in turn made the rape case against his clients.
The regional court prosecutor argued if their story is to be believed she was happy to come back the next morning for the remaining money it would not have made sense for her to go in the middle of the same night to drive to the police station and open a case of rape when according to the two she was happy when she left.
The court noted there were two versions and the version of the victim sounded more plausible and the court said that the victim was very clear in her testimony, her behaviour in court did not resemble a person that is lying.
But for the suspects it was the opposite and so the duo accused were slapped with 12 years of direct imprisonment each after the court found the aggravating factors surrounding the seriousness of the crime and circumstances under which the crime was committed outweigh the mitigating factors of the accused persons.