John Muyamba

RUNDU – The Shadikongoro community says they are unhappy with Mukwe constituency councillor Damian Maghambayi telling them not to take matters into their own hands as they mourn the death of a 22-year-old student, whose body was discovered on Thursday, floating in the Kavango River.

Villagers believe the young man was killed for body parts by suspected shebeen owners in the area. The victim was a student at the University of Namibia’s (Unam) Rundu campus and he was reported to have disappeared in the area of Shadikongoro.

“We met the councillor – and before
handing over a complaint to him on Monday, we briefed him of what our community has been going through,” said Claudia Nangura Marungu, who is part of the VDC.  In their letter, addressed to the councillor, the Shadikongoro village development committee (VDC) stated that 18 people have so far been suspected to have been killed for body parts to be used in rituals by business folk. 

In the recent case, the police said all body parts were intact, but the villagers said the opposite. “The community and family of the late Mukuve Fredrick Kanyanga are not happy you call upon the community not to take the law into their own hands and allow police investigations to continue,” said the letter sent by the VDC to Maghambayi.

“Our response is that we refuse to wait for police investigations because similar cases had happened in our community; the police were involved to investigate but nothing has come out,” the letter further stated.

The community is organising a demonstration to air their grievances. “We demand that you invite the media to come and capture our demonstration before the burial of the late Mukuve,” the letter said.

The VDC in the letter also demanded the councillor to ensure he responds to the community within days, and that failure to do that will result in them taking the law into
their own hands.

On his part, the Mukwe councillor confirmed the VDC met with him and he told them to take the letter to the police if
they wanted to demonstrate, as he can only receive the petition but not be part of the
activity. 

“I told them that they must bear in mind that with the current regulation, gatherings are limited to 10 people,” Maghambayi said.

“I told them no one is above the law, and we should wait for the autopsy report. As a step to clean out crime in the area, we are busy with law enforcement agencies, arranging to launch a neighbourhood watch to combat crime in the area, as the are many crime activities in the area,” he said.