Roland Routh

WINDHOEK - A Karibib resident accused of stabbing his former girlfriend to death with a spear has turned around and accused the sister of the deceased for the brutal murder.

According to Petrus Jacobus du Plessis, 51, he was not the one who stabbed the deceased, Beverly Kurangera, who was 26 years old at the time of her demise, at least eight times with a spear, but that it was the sister of the deceased, Alma Garises.

During cross-examination of Garises yesterday during the trial of Du Plessis, his Legal Aid lawyer Milton Engelbrecht told Garises that Du Plessis claim that it was her who stabbed the deceased while he held her as a shield when Garises tried to stab him.

Garises denied this and said that she never had the spear in her hands and was not present when the deceased was killed.

According to her, she and the deceased were in their ghetto when Du Plessis knocked on the door and when her sister enquired and Du Plessis answered, they then ignored him.

After a little while, the witness said, they heard a loud noise from the direction of the door and then Du Plessis barged into the ghetto and went to sit on the bed of the deceased.

“The accused then told my sister, “today you will see who I am, you have finished my money and now that you see I have no more money you ended our relationship. I will kill you, I will kill your son and I will kill your sister,” Garises told the court.

According to Garises, she then took out her cellphone to text the police as her sister had already took out a protection order against the accused, but Du Plessis then went to the door where he retrieved a spear and threw it at her and demanded the cellphone.

“My sister grabbed hold of the spear and told me to run and inform people that Du Plessis was there and also to inform the police,” Garises told the court and continued: “I ran outside and started to scream that Du Plessis was in our house and went to the police station where I informed two police constables that the accused was at our house armed with a spear. The officers then  searched for back-up and we drove to the ghetto.” She went on to say through a burst of tears that when they arrived at the ghetto, she found her sister lying on the ground outside her neighbour’s yard in a pool of blood and that Du Plessis was nowhere to be seen.

Du Plessis is charged with housebreaking with the intent to murder and murder read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act and one count of assault by threat.

According to the indictment, he broke into the house/zinc shack of the deceased by kicking open the door with the intent to murder the deceased and then did unlawfully and intentionally kill her on 25 August 2018 at Old Location in Karibib. It is also alleged that he is guilty of assault by threat by throwing a spear in the direction of Garises and/or threatening to stab her and the three-year old son of the deceased with a spear.
The trial is continuing today at the Windhoek High Court, at the Windhoek Correctional Facility and Du Plessis remains in custody at the facility’s section for trial awaiting inmates.
The prosecution is represented by State Advocate Seredine Jacobs and High Court Judge Dinnah Usiku is presiding.