WINDHOEK – The four men accused of killing renowned community police volunteer Hiambepo ‘Major’ Kazeurua made their first pre-trial appearance in the Windhoek High Court before Judge President Petrus Damaseb on Thursday last week.
Stockley Kavejao, 40, Matheu Kakururume, 29, Muvare Kaporo, 25, and Afas Kamutjemo, 38, were informed their case was postponed to May 22 for another pre-trial hearing to allocate them a trial judge.
Kavejao will be represented by defence counsel Slysken Mukando, while Kakururume will have Bronell Uirab in his corner and Willem Visser will defend Kamutjemo, both on the ticket of legal aid.
Kaporo informed the Judge President he wished to appoint his own lawyer but that his finances were constrained. The Judge President strongly advised Kaporo to make use of a state funded lawyer, but he stuck to his guns saying that if he could not get a private lawyer he would rather defend himself.
The four men face charges of murder, stock theft and defeating or attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice. The accused are all alleged to be involved in the gruesome murder and mutilation of Kazeurua, who was well known for fighting stock theft in the district where he was killed. The victim’s partly burned body was found in an aardvark burrow on January 7, after being reported missing for days earlier.
According to the indictment, Hadley Mwashekeleh who is the owner of the stolen cattle rented grazing for his animals on farm Rembrandt in the Gobabis district. Kaporo was in his employ and responsible for looking after the cattle, while Kakururume was employed on the neighbouring farm, Brazil, which is owned by the brother of Kavejao. It is stated that Kamutjemo is a friend of Kavejao. According to the indictment, Kavejao and Kamutjemo planned to steal cattle and roped in Kaporo and Kakururume to their devious plan.
During the period December 6 – 10, 2012, Kaporo and Kakururume herded 15 head of cattle belonging to Mwashekeleh from farm Rembrandt to farm Brazil with the end destination farm Groot Ums in the Leonardville district. Farm Groot Ums is the farm where Kamutjeno and his uncle were farming and the cattle arrived there during December 2012, it is stated in the indictment.
It was then that Mwashekeleh contracted Kazeurua who was an avid and able stock-theft investigator to investigate the theft of his cattle. Kazeurua was reportedly hot on the trail of the stolen cattle when he was murdered. The indictment further states that the accused conspired to kill Kazeurua to prevent him from tracing the stolen cattle and Kaporo and Kakururume ambushed him and killed him by strangling him and throwing sand into his mouth to prevent him from breathing. This happened on December 28, 2012.
It is further alleged that the accused defeated or obstructed the course of justice or attempted to defeat or obstruct the course of justice when they burned the vehicle of the deceased, burned and buried the body of the deceased, gave money to Kaporo and Kakururume to leave the district of Gobabis after the death of the deceased and the theft of the cattle, burned, destroyed or otherwise disposed of the ear tags of the cattle, kept the stolen cattle on farm Groot Ums and/or mixed the cattle with other cattle kept at farm Groot Ums and attempted to brand the stolen cattle with the registered brand mark of Kamutjemo.
All the stolen cattle were recovered and returned to their owner.