A 39-year-old Windhoek man appeared in the Katutura Magistrate’s Court yesterday on rape charges after he allegedly sexually assaulted his stepdaughter.

The stepdaughter is now reportedly pregnant with his child.

He remains in custody, while the matter has been remanded to 3 August for further investigation.

It is reported that the rape occurred between 2018 and 2022 at different places in Windhoek  and on numerous occasions. 

Khomas police spokesperson Silas Shipandeni said it is alleged that the suspect unlawfully and intentionally had sexual intercourse with the complainant without her consent. 

He added that the complainant was 14 years old when the accused started raping her. She is now 18 years old, and is seven months pregnant. The case was registered at the Katutura police station on Monday. and the suspect was arrested on Tuesday afternoon.

Shipandeni further indicated that the suspect, who is a Zimbabwean national, resides at the same house as the victim and was self-employed, selling fruit and operating a part-time car dealership.

According to a family member who is a close uncle of the victim, the  18-year-old girl came to Namibia in 2018 to attend school. 

“When the child arrived here, she was going to school. The suspect then started sleeping with the victim at home when the mother left for work. After that, he started dropping her off and picking her up from school. The victim told us that he started sleeping with her in the car in the bush. He sometimes drove to isolated places to abuse the victim for the whole day, and then the victim would skip classes,” the horrified uncle claimed.

The uncle told New Era that the family only found out about the sensitive news last week when the mother approached the victim to reveal who was responsible for her pregnancy.

“The mother, who is now emotionally drained by the situation, decided to alert us as uncles, and we rushed to the house to get to the bottom of the matter. When we got there, the suspect was arrogant, stubborn and not remorseful as he started threatening to kill the victim and the mother if they reported the matter to the police. We interfered, and decided to report the matter to the police through the ministry of gender equality so that he could get arrested,” said the uncle, who cannot be named.

The family then advised the victim to go and open a case against the suspect on Monday. As a result, he was arrested.

“We find it not safe for the suspect to sleep in the same house with the mother and the victim as he has already made dangerous threats of killing the two. He is now at court, and we too are here to hear what will happen. We hope he will not get bail,” the uncle stated.

“She only told us that she dropped out of school because the man (suspect) told her that school is a waste of time, and she must drop out so that he could pay for her short courses to start working immediately.”

* Names withheld to protect the victim.