Iuze Mukube
A 31-year-old man, facing a charge of murdering his girlfriend, took the stand yesterday before Windhoek High Court judge Claudia Claasen, and said she was still alive when he left the shack on the day of the incident.
Lolo Tweumona Kambwela denied that he caused the death of Nghimushima Haufiku, on 13 February 2022 at DRC location in Otjiwarongo.
Kambwela said on the day, he made an unexpected visit to Haufiku’s home, with whom he shared an intimate relationship.
This was after telling the court he worked as a security guard throughout the week, from Monday to Sunday in Otjiwarongo.
He said he found the deceased with another man in the house, whom he recognised as the man the deceased had claimed he had kept calling her and that he wanted to sleep with her.
He said, she had told him that a man was in the grandmother’s room and that the man wanted to sleep with her.
He followed her into the room and the unknown man started beating his girlfriend before starting to fight with him too.
“I ran away from the shack [the deceased’s house] to the neighbour’s house to seek help for my girlfriend, but they refused,” he said.
He then went to ask for help from a relative, Kamati Muramba but he said he was busy. He then left for the police station to report that he found a man in his girlfriend’s house and had they fought.
However, Muramba testified that the accused had told him he had beaten up a man he found at his girlfriend’s house, not knowing if he was dead or alive. Additionally, told him that he would either kill himself or hand himself over to the police.
The witness also said after the accused left his house, Kambwela called him on his cellphone and told him that he should check on his girlfriend as he had assaulted and stabbed her with a knife.
Kambwela denied calling Kamati on his cellphone or telling the police that he assaulted and stabbed his girlfriend with a knife, he only said he fought with the man he found at his girlfriend’s house.
He stated he left his girlfriend with the man who assaulted her because he did not want to fight and did not expect to find a man that day at his girlfriend’s house.
This was after he was asked why he left his girlfriend with an aggressive man if he was so concerned, to run away to seek help.
“I left her to go call the neighbours to come and assist me”, he said.
The State alleges that Kambwela went to the shack of the victim in the evening hours of 13 February 2022, and an argument erupted between them.
He then stabbed her at least 51 times with a knife, causing her death due to high loss of blood caused by the stab wounds to her chest, the state alleges.
It is further alleged that he then took the knife and a cell phone they used between them, locked the victim’s body inside the shack with a padlock, and threw away the key and the knife to frustrate the police in their investigations.
“I did not kill my girlfriend, when I left, she was alive, and I left the house door open as there were people inside [deceased and the unknown man]” stated Kambwela.
The accused is represented by Kenneth Siambango and the State by Advocate Anna Amukugo.
The matter was postponed to 9 May 2025 for closing submissions.