The judgement in the case of a farmworker who admitted to killing his girlfriend and mother of his child in 2018 was postponed to 19 August.
Windhoek High Court Judge Claudia Claasen was scheduled to hand down judgement yesterday however such could not happen. The court was informed by Judge Thomas Masuku that Claasen and Hendrik Bock’s defence lawyer, Mese Tjituri, were in self-isolation. 
Last week, Bock (53), admitted to killing Angela Anab on 24 September 2018 in the area of Gobabis. 

In his plea explanation which was read by his lawyer Tjituri, he said he hit Anab with an axe and slit her throat. 
He further admitted that he stabbed Anab twice with a knife before he slit her throat, ostensibly because she ‘did not respect him’.
It was his testimony that he and the deceased were at her father’s home on that morning drinking alcohol and that they later left to get some more alcohol.

He said that after a while he noticed that she had emptied the wine and when she could not give a satisfactory answer he became angry and a heated argument ensued, during which the deceased told him that she had deliberately infected him with a sexually transmitted disease and he then pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed her three times and also slit her throat.
He further said that with the guilty plea he wished to extend his sincere apology to the family of the deceased for the manner he caused her death and pleaded with the court for mercy. On the charge of attempted murder, he denied any knowledge of the offence and put it to the State to prove the allegation beyond reasonable doubt.

The father of the deceased, Fritz Anab, told the court that on the day in question he was visited by a friend and they went to play a traditional game called Onuye under a tree near his house.
While they were sitting there, he said, the accused and the deceased left to get some mealie meal from a neighbour to fix porridge and when they returned, the deceased came to sit where they were playing the game.

After a while, the witness testified, the accused also came there and when he saw he had an open knife in his hand he asked the accused what was going on and the accused replied ‘this girl has no respect for me’ and stabbed her once in the shoulder and once in the chest.
Bock has been in police custody since his arrest in 2018.
– mamakali@nepc.com.na