Loide Jason
Windhoek-A man from Windhoek’s Havana informal settlement says he is living in fear of his ex-girlfriend and mother of his child who has thus far twice set fire to his shack. The man, Frans Nambinga, also alleges that the ex-girlfriend is sending him threatening text messages and has threatened to kill him on several occasions.
He alleges that in the last incident the girlfriend set fire to the shack while he was fast asleep. The fire only burnt the door and pole but not the entire shack. Nambinga says he has opened two cases of arson with the police but the police are yet to start with an investigation and have not even interviewed him.
“I opened the first case in March, but to tell you the truth after I opened a case the police did not try to contact me in order to direct them to come visit my place so that they will see the evidence and get the physical forensics. It is disheartening and I feel gender segregated. If it was me who did that to her I could already be in custody,” said a concerned Nambinga.
Khomas police regional crime investigation coordinator, Deputy Commissioner Abner Agas, confirmed that Nambinga has opened the case and that the investigation in the matter has started.
Agas said although the investigator is yet to contact Nambinga the police would need to gather evidence as proof that it is the girlfriend who is responsible for the arson attack.
Philipus Tuhafeni Petrus, a social worker at Monica Gender Violence Solution, has expressed disappointment at the pace with which the police are handling the case. More disappointing is that a second arson attack took place at Nambinga’s place after Nambinga had opened a case with the police.
“If he had died, what were the police going to do, despite the fact that the man reported the matter on time. It cannot take a month for an investigator to visit the scene. I feel that police are just slow to act when the man is a victim [but are] quick to respond to women [complaints],” said Petrus. Petrus claims to have played a role in counselling Nambinga to ignore and to refrain from making wrong decisions but the police are adding paraffin to the fire by taking too long to attend to the case.
Nambinga is adamant that evidence exists to prove that it is his ex-girlfriend who committed the arson attacks.
Nambinga also accuses his ex-girlfriend of threatening to kill him on several occasions.
Their respective families have separated Nambinga and the ex-girlfriend, and Nambinga alleges that the ex-girlfriend has a violent temper to an extent that she had always slept with a knife under her pillow, especially after they had an argument.
“Every time we argue, she will rush to pick a weapon to make sure she harms me, but I always manage to stop her. She has tried several times to fight me with a weapon and that is why our two families intervened and told her to move out from my place,” Nambinga narrated.
He said that the second time the ex-girlfriend tried to harm him was when she sent her son to go buy a two-litre bottle of paraffin threatening to burn him so that he dies and she will earn social grants from the government that are given to orphans.
What triggered Nambinga to narrate his story was that when he opened the first case against the suspect the police allegedly did not make any attempts to engage him to start with the investigation.