10-year jail terms for Gobabis mob killing

JUDGE President Peter Shivute yesterday sent a strong warning to people taking the law into their own hands by sending four men, convicted of a mob killing at Gobabis, to prison for 10 years each.

The four include a Police Sergeant and a Constable and two former insurance company employees. They were each sentenced in the High Court in Windhoek to 15 years’ imprisonment, of which five years were suspended for five years on condition that they are not convicted of murder again during that period.Police Sergeant Sageus Veisana Mureti (37), Constable William Muheke Nganjone (33), insurance broker Moses Tjindijumba (35) and another insurance company employee, Willem Katjinamunene (36), were found guilty on a charge of murder on March 18.Judge President Shivute convicted them of murdering Simeon Kanguvi (31) at Gobabis on June 19 1999.Kanguvi’s bloodied, bruised, partly-clothed body was found lying on a tarred road at Gobabis the next morning.It was later established that he had died from bleeding to the brain, caused by blunt trauma to his head.On the previous evening, he had assaulted his girlfriend by hitting her on the head with a bottle.That incident took place “at a bar rather inauspiciously named ‘Push & Pull’, in the Judge Resident’s words.Mureti, Nganjone, Tjindijumba and Katjinamunene arrived at the bar later and helped to take Kanguvi’s injured girlfriend to someone’s house to be treated.Kanguvi arrived at the house and promptly got into a fight with some of the four.He eventually left the house, only to return again later.After his return, a more serious fight broke out, which resulted in him being chased away into the night, screaming for help, while being pursued – and being assaulted with punches, kicks and blows inflicted with a brick and a knobkierie (wooden club) – by the four men, the court found in its judgement last month.The Judge President found that the four had acted with a common purpose when they set upon Kanguvi.He also found that they had foreseen the possibility that death might have been the result if Kanguvi was hit with a blunt object.As a result he found each of the four guilty of murder without direct intention to kill.Yesterday the Judge President commented that the evidence showed that Kanguvi “was subjected to a sustained and brutal attack”.Photographs that showed his body “are a poignant reminder of the horrific injuries he sustained”, he remarked.”You were merciless in your pursuit of the deceased and having badly beaten him up, you essentially left him to die while you continued to engage in what appears to be your favourite pastime – drinking alcohol – as if nothing serious had happened,” he said.Judge President Shivute told the four – and a public gallery filled almost to capacity – that he was taking into account that Kanguvi had been the original aggressor and that there was an element of instantaneous reaction and no premeditated planning on the part of the four when they attacked Kanguvi.He had also taken into account that when Kanguvi arrived at the house the second time, it appeared that he had returned “to embark on gratuitous violence”, and that his earlier attack on his girlfriend had already shown that he was somehow disposed to violent conduct.Further, although the abuse of alcohol should not be used as an excuse to commit a crime, he had taken into account that the fact that the group had consumed alcohol, combined with the apparent provocation on the part of Kanguvi “may well have had a bearing on the destructive path you saw fit to embark upon that night”.”In the light of the seriousness of the crime, its relative prevalence and the attendant brutalities, it becomes necessary to sentence you to a fairly long term of imprisonment so as to take account of your conduct and to satisfy the natural indignation society feels about what you have done,” the Judge President told the four.Public Prosecutor Frieda Kishi presented the State’s case to the court.Defence counsel Hennie Barnard represented Mureti, Petrie Theron acted for Nganjone, and Lucia Hamutenya defended Tjindijumba and Katjinamunene.They were each sentenced in the High Court in Windhoek to 15 years’ imprisonment, of which five years were suspended for five years on condition that they are not convicted of murder again during that period.Police Sergeant Sageus Veisana Mureti (37), Constable William Muheke Nganjone (33), insurance broker Moses Tjindijumba (35) and another insurance company employee, Willem Katjinamunene (36), were found guilty on a charge of murder on March 18.Judge President Shivute convicted them of murdering Simeon Kanguvi (31) at Gobabis on June 19 1999.Kanguvi’s bloodied, bruised, partly-clothed body was found lying on a tarred road at Gobabis the next morning.It was later established that he had died from bleeding to the brain, caused by blunt trauma to his head.On the previous evening, he had assaulted his girlfriend by hitting her on the head with a bottle.That incident took place “at a bar rather inauspiciously named ‘Push & Pull’, in the Judge Resident’s words.Mureti, Nganjone, Tjindijumba and Katjinamunene arrived at the bar later and helped to take Kanguvi’s injured girlfriend to someone’s house to be treated.Kanguvi arrived at the house and promptly got into a fight with some of the four.He eventually left the house, only to return again later.After his return, a more serious fight broke out, which resulted in him being chased away into the night, screaming for help, while being pursued – and being assaulted with punches, kicks and blows inflicted with a brick and a knobkierie (wooden club) – by the four men, the court found in its judgement last month.The Judge President found that the four had acted with a common purpose when they set upon Kanguvi.He also found that they had foreseen the possibility that death might have been the result if Kanguvi was hit with a blunt object.As a result he found each of the four guilty of murder without direct intention to kill.Yesterday the Judge President commented that the evidence showed that Kanguvi “was subjected to a sustained and brutal attack”.Photographs that showed his body “are a poignant reminder of the horrific injuries he sustained”, he remarked.”You were merciless in your pursuit of the deceased and having badly beaten him up, you essentially left him to die while you continued to engage in what appears to be your favourite pastime – drinking alcohol – as if nothing serious had happened,” he said.Judge President Shivute told the four – and a public gallery filled almost to capacity – that he was taking into account that Kanguvi had been the original aggressor and that there was an element of instantaneous reaction and no premeditated planning on the part of the four when they attacked Kanguvi.He had also taken into account that when Kanguvi arrived at the house the second time, it appeared that he had returned “to embark on gratuitous violence”, and that his earlier attack on his girlfriend had already shown that he was somehow disposed to violent conduct.Further, although the abuse of alcohol should not be used as an excuse to commit a crime, he had taken into account that the fact that the group had consumed alcohol, combined with the apparent provocation on the part of Kanguvi “may well have had a bearing on the destructive path you saw fit to embark upon that night”.”In the light of the seriousness of the crime, its relative prevalence and the attendant brutalities, it becomes necessary to sentence you to a fairly long term of imprisonment so as to take account of your conduct and to satisfy the natural indignation society feels about what you have done,” the Judge President told the four.Public Prosecutor Frieda Kishi presented the State’s case to the court.Defence counsel Hennie Barnard represented Mureti, Petrie Theron acted for Nganjone, and Lucia Hamutenya defended Tjindijumba and Katjinamunene.