WINDHOEK – A 72-year-old woman is fighting for her life in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Oshakati Intermediate Hospital, after she tried to come to the defence of her daughter who was being viciously hacked with a panga by her boyfriend.

Family members said the younger woman suffered several thrashings at the hands of the suspect, before being hacked to death. 

The incident occurred on Sunday evening at Okashopashopa village at Etayi Constituency in the Omusati Region.

Pensioner Lovisa Amutenya suffered severe cuts after trying to come to the defence of her daughter Hambeleleni Ndahafa Absalom aged 35.
Absalom died on the spot.

According to the spokesperson of the police in the region, Inspector Lineekela Shikongo, the mother-in-law got involved in the scuffle, as she could not watch idly as her daughter was being mercilessly hacked by the man who is supposed to protect her.

Karolina Hainghumbi, the elder sister to the deceased, said the death of her sister could have been avoided had the police acted proactively when abuse against Absalom was first reported to them on May 11 at the Omungwelume police station in Ohangwena Region.

“My sister has been abused badly by the suspect when they lived together at the suspect’s house and then she decided to move back to our house,” she recalls. 

“However, the suspect have been following my sister now and then, to the extend that he wanted to stab her with a knife at cuca shops near our house,” she said.

The two have been cohabitating for more than a year and did not have children together.
On the day of the alleged attempt to stab Absalom, the family succeeded in preventing the suspect from stabbing her. But the suspect allegedly approached the police to claim that the family was preventing him from seeing his girlfriend.

“I, our mother and the deceased were summoned to report to the police, which we did and my sister informed the police that she has been suffering the beatings on a daily basis. There was a certain day she was beaten and peed blood. He took her to the hospital and told her to tell the nurses that she has a wound and was never beaten. She did exactly what she was told,” Hainghumbi narrated.

She explained that the sister has begged the police to assist in escorting her to go fetch her clothes from the suspect’s house so that they part ways for good, but police refused to assist.
“They told my sister to go collect her stuff in the same way she took them there,” the elder sister said.

Inspector Shikongo said the police could not escort the deceased to collect her stuff from her boyfriend’s house because there was no case opened or a protection order against the suspect.

“The hands of the police were tied in the matter because the police can only react when there is a case opened or a registered protection order. The deceased knew that her life was at risk when the suspect almost stabbed her with a knife and has been beating her continuously, but she did not attempt to open a case, she only decided to go back to her mother’s house,” said Shikongo. 

“We are speechless. We think he [suspect] did this intentionally because he has been pursuing our sister now and then just to beat her. He has a gut to come and beat our sister in front of our mother and us. This is bad,” said the emotional Hainghumbi who later gave her phone to a cousin to conclude the conversation with this journalist, as she could no longer contain her emotions.

The suspect was arrested shortly after he surrendered himself to the police at Omungwelume police station when he heard that the police was after him. He is currently detained at Etayi police holding cells and is expected to make his first court appearance in the Outapi Magistrate’s Court today. 

The suspect, whose name can only be revealed after his court appearance, is a 48-year-old Namibian male from Ondjengo village in Endola Constituency of Ohangwena Region.