The trial of two of three men, accused of killing 71-year-old Gerhardus Petrus Koekemoer at his Outjo home in 2014, is on hold. 

Yesterday, Lourens Aib (29) and co-accused Hendrik Nowoseb (40) were informed by High Court Judge Kobus Miller that their trial will not continue as planned, as their lawyers, Jermaine Muchali and Natji Tjirera, were not available. 

Miller added the matter will be postponed to 12 May for the court to set new trial dates. 

All accused were remanded in police custody.

The pair is on trial for the alleged murder of Koekemoer by stabbing him with a knife. 

The State is alleging they also tried to murder Koekemoer’s fiancée, Zenobia Bezuidenhout, on the evening of 25 October 2014 during a robbery at a small shop that Bezuidenhout was running from Koekemoer’s house. 

Aib and Nowoseb are further accused of stealing N$251 in cash as well as N$10 and N$5 tango recharge vouchers worth N$465, together with cigarettes, sweets, and a bunch of keys and a pocketknife.

The two are being tried on a count of murder, attempted murder, rape and robbery with aggravating circumstances. 

 They were initially charged alongside Ferdinand Hangula (41), but he committed suicide. 

Prior to committing suicide, Hangula, who was on bail, allegedly got involved in an argument with his 39-year-old pregnant girlfriend after she repeatedly told him he is not the father of her unborn child. 

At some stage during the argument, he used a shoelace to strangle the woman to death, it was reported in a crime report at the time. 

It was further reported that to hide the body of his girlfriend, he pushed her remains under the bed. 

He then took the time to write a suicide note before hanging himself with a piece of rope in the bedroom, where he had hidden the body of his girlfriend.

Nowoseb, on the other hand, is serving a prison sentence of 44 years for the murder of his former girlfriend Wilhelmina Tsauses, whom he stabbed to death in her hospital bed after he had stabbed her the previous evening. 

The incident took place in August 2017. 

His arrest for the murder of Tsauses is what led to the breakthrough in the Koekemoer murder after he told another inmate at the Outjo police cells that he is not worried about the killing of the girl, but that of a “white man” he and two friends robbed and killed previously.

- mamakali@nepc.com.na