A man accused of murdering his girlfriend and mother of his then two-year-old son has denied committing the crime. Gustav Pienaar on Friday made a U-turn on his decision not to testify in his own defence by testifying before Windhoek High Court Judge Christie Liebenberg about what transpired on the day of the incident for which he is on trial.
The State alleged Pienaar murdered his girlfriend Magde Christina Cloete by stabbing her once in the chest with a knife on 8 May 2018. However, Pienaar denied the claim, putting the blame for the murder on the State witnesses. According to Pienaar he found the victim at a shebeen near his house in Havana where she was consuming a traditional “tombo”.
He further narrated that when he came there the patrons asked him to remove the victim as she was unruly. He said he then spoke to the deceased in a calming voice and asked her to go with him which she did.
He went on to say that he had a knife with him, which he was trying to sell, in his one hand and his baby boy in the other arm while they were walking. “When we reached the kapana stand at the four-way stop, the deceased told me she was hungry, but I told her that I don’t have money and must first sell the knife,” Pienaar informed the court. He said the next moment, a certain Dina Smith, who is also the State witness, came running to him, with a stone in her hand.
“When she reached me, she dropped the stone and started to attack me. The deceased got in-between us while I was still holding the knife in my hand.
She started to wrestle with me, and the next thing is saw was Dina Smith who grabbed the knife from its sheath. When I tried to retrieve the knife, she swung it and my girlfriend was cut on the shoulder. I was very shocked when I saw the blood. It was my first time to see so much blood.”
Pienaar claimed he left the scene to look for help but could not find any. “I then decided to walk back to the scene, but on the way, I saw the ambulance and I decided to walk to an area we call Khorixas to my relatives there to go with me to the police, but nobody wanted to.
I then left and while walking I had an epileptic fit and that is the last thing I remember until I woke up in hospital 20 days later on 26 May 2018,” Pienaar stated.
Pienaar is charged with one count of murder read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, one count of assault by threat for threatening to kill Hilaria Amukoto and one count of defeating or obstructing or attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice for hiding or destroying the knife used to kill the deceased.
Pienaar who is conducting his own defence after several lawyers withdrew from his case because of unrealistic instructions will return to court on 17 May for submissions on the verdict. He remains in custody.
–rrouth@nepc.com.na