2018-02-12Staff Report 2 Maria Amakali Windhoek-The Windhoek Regional Court acquitted Simeon Mwalunduka Malakia of the murder of his friend Simeon Uugwanga on grounds the state failed to prove its case against the accused. Malakia was on trial on a charge of murder for allegedly stabbing Uugwanga multiple times while they were at a sheeben in Katutura, Windhoek five years ago on September 14, 2013. Magistrate Ileni Velikoshi explained the state failed to call to the stand Toivo Thomas, a key eyewitness who could have provided crucial information on what transpired on that fateful day. “Toivo Thomas could have provided the information he did to the investigative officer because he had witnessed how the accused stabbed and killed the deceased.” Uugwanga was stabbed five times on different locations on his body. The state had argued Malakia’s actions exceeded the bounds of private defence because he stabbed the deceased five times. The court ruled there was no evidence to suggest Malakia inflicted the fatal wound or any of the superficial stab wounds. Malakia denied guilt, saying he never meant to kill or harm Uugwanga – he was merely defending himself. According to him, Uugwanga first attacked him by hitting him eight times with a bottle before he (Uugwanga) took out a knife. “The argument that the accused had exceeded the bounds of self-defence would only hold if the state had established the circumstances in which the accused found himself at the time in relation to the capacity of the deceased at the time, and that is only if it differs from what the accused had testified,” explained the magistrate. The court established that even though Malakia’s story had several shortcomings, his story was not an unbelievable one as the shortcomings do not go to the core of the factual findings that the court has made. “In my view the state had not discharged the onus to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the conditions for self-defence did not exist or that the bounds of self-defence have been exceeded,” noted the magistrate in his judgement. 2018-02-12Staff Report 2
