Windhoek
A man who admitted to having stabbed his wife, the mother of his six children, pleaded guilty yesterday to all the charges against him in the Windhoek High Court before Judge Christi Liebenberg.
Kaxui Katjivi, 33, pleaded guilty through an Otjiherero interpreter on a charge of murder with direct intent, read with the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and one count of assault.
According to the indictment, Katjivi killed Dina Anton by stabbing her at least ten times with a knife at Otjinene in the Gobabis District on July 31, 2014.
It is stated in the charge sheet that the deceased wanted to remove her belongings from the house of the accused, as she wanted to separate from him and move back to her family in Okakarara, but Katjivi ordered her not to remove any of her property and that she should stay.
He then attacked her, culminating in the fatal stabbing, the indictment reads.
It is further stated while the accused was stabbing the deceased, he also attempted to stab Alfeus Katai Haurumbu, who tried to come to the aid of the deceased. He, however, did not succeed as Haurumbu managed to evade the blows.
Judge Liebenberg had a problem with this charge, as he indicated the complainant did not suffer any injuries. He asked Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef to revisit the charge and possibly amend it to attempted assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
Katjivi faced a further charge of assault for threatening Bertha Tlao Eises with a knife and for pushing her out of his house.
His State-funded lawyer, Afrika Jantjies, confirmed the pleas and submitted a plea explanation containing the admissions, but Judge Liebenberg while accepting the guilty pleas had a problem with the plea explanation, as it did not set out the reasons for the plea comprehensively.
According to the judge, the pleas must be adequately explained. Jantjies undertook to prepare a more substantive plea explanation and the case was thus postponed to May 31.
Verhoef informed the court that the State accepts the pleas and would call two witnesses in aggravation of sentence.