Windhoek
The Windhoek High Court is set to deliver its judgement on July 19 in a matter in which Kaxui Katjivi admitted to killing his wife, Dina Anton, but in fact pleaded not guilty, saying the killing was a result of sustained verbal abuse by the wife and, on the day of the murder, a daring provocation from the wife and her sister Bertha Tlao Eises.
“The attack was not a planned one,” Katjivi’s defence lawyer Afrika Jantjie argued, adding that his client “did not kill out of a need to kill, but because of circumstances that built up over a period of time.”
He told the court that if there had not been provocation on the part of the deceased Anton and her sister Eises, who dared him to kill them, Anton would possibly still be alive today.
Katjivi’s defence team said the swearing and insults on the day in question were probably the straw that broke the camel’s back, which led to Katjivi getting tired of being insulted and he lost control.
Jantjie who appears for Katjivi, 33, on instructions of the Department of Legal Aid, told the court that the relationship between Katjivi and Anton was so toxic that it should possibly not have continued for as long as it had. Thus, Jantjie argued, it was the continuous strain of the relationship that could have had an adverse effect on
Katjivi until he could not take it anymore that caused him to snap – which resulted in him killing his wife.
Katjivi admitted to killing Anton by stabbing her at least ten times with a knife at Otjinene in the Gobabis District on July 31, 2014. He also faces a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm for attempting to stab Alfeus Katai Haurumbu, who tried to come to his wife’s aid, and a further charge of assault for threatening Eises with a knife and for pushing her out of his house, causing her some injuries.
Katjivi pleaded guilty to the murder of his wife Anton at the start of his trial, but High Court Judge Christi Liebenberg entered a plea of not guilty after Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef informed the court that the State accepted the elements of the crime but not the allegations of swearing and provocation.
Katjivi is charged with murder with direct intent read with the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and one count of assault.
The prosecution however dismissed Katjivi’s defence team’s version of events, especially the allegations of provocation, as blatant lies and a fabrication of events. Prosecutor Verhoef disputes that Anton and her sister Eises provoked Katjivi by swearing and insulting him and his mother.
Deputy Prosecutor Verhoef said that both State witnesses testified there was nothing of the sort and that Katjivi was playing for sympathy from the court.
“The accused is a lying witness and his version that he was cutting meat to prepare food for his children is a pure fabrication and false beyond belief, which should be rejected with the contempt it deserves,” Verhoef told the court.
Evidence produced showed that it was only Katjivi, the deceased Anton, the witness Eises and the teenage daughter of Katjivi who were at home when the incident happened. The other children were at the house of the witness Eises, where they were staying, Verhoef said.
According to her, Katjivi carried out a threat he made the previous evening when he placed the blade of the knife against the neck of his wife and warned of killing her.
After he heard submissions from the prosecution and the defence, Judge Liebenberg said he would deliver judgement on July 19.