Iuze Mukube
A State witness, revealed to be a neighbour of three Zimbabwean nationals accused of killing nine-year-old Akundaishe Natalie Chipomho, testified that children at the accused’s residence may have been mistreated.
A couple, Caroline and Erdward Nkata, alongside the mother of the deceased, Rachel Kureva face charges in relation to the death of the nine-year-old girl between 23 to 25 January 2020 in Windhoek.
The trio face one count of murder and further counts of violating a dead body, defeating or attempting to defeat the course of justice, fraud, alternatively uttering a forged document, forgery and contravening the Immigration Control Act.
The witness’s testimony aligns with the State’s allegations that between 23 and 25 January 2020, the Nkatas kicked and hit Chipomho with unknown objects all over her body and head, leaving her unconscious and then placed her in a plastic bucket and waited for her to die.
Briefly, a confession allegedly made by Caroline Nkata to a magistrate also reveals an assault by Edward towards the minor girl on said date.
In that confession, Caroline says she saw her husband beating the child with his hands and when she tried to stop him, he violently pushed her away and threatened to beat her up as well.
Subsequently, the husband later called her to bring him water in the room where he was allegedly beating the child.
The accused confessed that she gave the glass of water to her husband, which he poured on the child in an attempt to wake her up after she was non-responsive to calls.
Caroline also told the magistrate she saw foam coming out of the girl’s mouth and when she told her husband that they should take her to the hospital, he again threatened her.
The accused said she checked up on the deceased from time to time in the garage where Edward took her after she was not responsive.
The deceased was left in the garage for a night and found dead by the couple in the morning.
Accordingly, the witness, Bonita Minnies, stated that she observed Edward beating one of the children, a boy, from his house with a belt.
She stated that she believed it was abuse because he was hitting the young child in a very aggressive and powerful manner.
She added that she saw the boy sitting behind the door and holding onto Edward’s leg and screaming while his father [Edward] beat him.
Minnies also revealed that she and her late husband on one occasion heard the children at the Nkata residence screaming in the house and Edward talking loudly.
She stated she did not know the reason why they were screaming but that it sounded like a scream of fear as if they were very scared.
A call was then made by her husband for a social worker.
Chipomho’s body was alleged to have been transported in a wheelie bin to a municipal skip located a distance from the accused’s flat, where it was dumped and set ablaze.
It is further alleged the Nkatas defrauded Progress Private School of N$6 000.
Additionally, Caroline indicated to the school where she was employed as a teacher that Chipomho and an 11-year-old minor were her biological children.
Thus, the minor children were not required to pay school fees by virtue of her being an employee at the school.
The couple is also accused of forging school reports for the children.
They are further accused of overstaying in the country for seven months after their employment permits expired.
The State is represented by Ethel Ndlovu, Edward by Mbanga Siyomunji, Caroline by Milton Engelbrecht, and Kureva by Joseph Andreas.