Lawyers representing three Zimbabwean nationals accused of murdering a nine-year-old girl and burning her body in a municipal skip container are accusing the police of lies and deceit during the initial investigation.
Defence lawyers Milton Engelbrecht, Mbanga Siyomunji and Joseph Andreas flat-out told Commissioner Nelius Becker, Inspector Lodewyk van Graan and Inspector Natangwe Erastus that they are liars who used deceit to trap their clients.
The lawyers represent Caroline Nkata, her husband Edward and Rachel Kureva respectively, who are accused of murdering Akundaishe Natalie Chipomho, the biological daughter of Kureva. Becker told the Court that he introduced himself as a member of the body corporate of the complex where the accused were residing after he first met Kureva. At that stage, she was not a suspect in the murder, and he just wanted to find out who else was residing the flat. He said he received information that three adults, a man and two women, two young boys, a young female and a baby resided at the flat. However, when he enquired about the residents, Kureva neglected to tell him about the young female which made him suspicious, Becker stated. He further said after he spoke to Kureva a few more minutes together with Van Graan, they left and he instructed Van Graan to remove a plastic bag from a bin in front of the residence and bring it along.
The fact that Becker failed to introduce himself as a police officer and removing the refuse bag from the bin, had the defence lawyer in a twist. According to them, the officers used deceit to get information from their clients. While the officers are adamant that they informed the accused persons of the rights including the right to legal aid, the lawyers claim it was not done. If they could lie so easily to suspects, what can stop them from lying about informing the accused of their rights, the lawyers asked.
Siyomunji told the officers that his instructions from his client, Edward, is that he was never informed of any of his rights at the time of his arrest. He also had a field day with the inconsistencies in the evidence of the three officers.
He wanted to know why, if the officers were together as they claim, did they present different testimonies. This, he said, is a sure sign that they lied to ensnare the accused persons.
The partly burned body of the deceased was found on 25 January 2020 in a rubbish container near Rhino Park. CCTV footage from the night in question showed two people, a man and a woman dragging a wheelie bin in the direction of the skip container and the State is claiming that it was the Nkata couple and that they were dragging the body of the deceased to the container to set it alight and destroy the evidence.
They Nketas facing one count of murder together with Kureva and further counts of violating a dead body, defeating, or attempting to defeat the course of justice, fraud, alternatively uttering a forged document, forgery, as well as contravening the Immigration Control Act.
They denied guilt on all the charges, but however admitted that they contravened the Immigration Control Act by remaining in Namibia from 16 June 2019 to 26 January 2020, after the expiry of a two-year employment permit that allowed them to stay in Namibia from June 2017.
The matter was postponed to 12 August, and the accused remanded in custody. The State is represented by Ethel Ndlovu.