Iuze Mukube
Jandre Dippenaar, who was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for the murder of six people in a fatal road collision in 2014, has been ordered to pay an amount of over N$4.7 million to a surviving family member.
A High Court order on Tuesday directed the convict to pay an amount of N$4.7 million for loss of support to German national and sole survivor Antonia Joschko.
It further ordered him to pay N$116 556 for funeral costs and an additional payment of N$200 000 for general damages.
The suit arises from a fatal car crash which claimed the lives of Joschko’s immediate family members.
The car accident happened near Henties Bay on 29 December 2014 and claimed the lives of Markus and Stephanie Joschko and their 19-year-old daughter, Alexandre.
Three people in the vehicle driven by Dippenaar – Dinah Pretorius, Charlene Schoombe and JC Horn – lost their lives in the collision.
Dippenaar and Joschko, who was 16 years-old at the time, were the only survivors from the car crash.
Dippenaar was sentenced to 15 years on six counts of murder at the end of his trial in the Swakopmund Regional Court in August 2024.
Regional Magistrate Gaynor Poulton, who presided over the matter, convicted Dippenaar of murder with intent in the form of dolus eventualis, which refers to when an accused person can objectively foresee that his conduct is likely to cause the death of another, but proceeds to act regardless of the consequences of his conduct.
In addition to the 15-year prison term on the six counts of murder, Poulton sentenced Dippenaar to pay fines of N$8 000 for reckless driving and N$2 000 for driving without a valid licence.
His driving licence was suspended for three months.
The court viewed Dippenaar’s actions as the cause of the deaths of six people.
Poulton had found that Dippenaar overtook vehicles at high speed on a blind rise on the road between Swakopmund and Henties Bay, in a manoeuvre that led to a collision with an oncoming vehicle in which the four members of the Joschko family were travelling. The reasons for the order are not yet available.