The crimes that shook Namibia in 2024

AS the year draws to a close, The Namibian looks at the crimes that stopped the nation in its tracks.

The incidents range from pocketing N$200 million to a love triangle that nearly cost a man his life, and trafficking 60 capsules of drugs.

JANUARY

The year kicked off with a bank employee being accused of stealing N$200 million.

The Namibian Police immediately launched a manhunt for Bank Windhoek employee Nico Rebebe (30).

The incident allegedly took place at Opuwo when Rebebe transferred N$200 million into two separate bank accounts in tranches of N$100 million each.
The money transfer was done without the authorisation of Opuwo’s branch manager.

The bank’s manager at the time said the two accounts to which the money was transferred were opened on 20 December 2023.

Rebebe was arrested in March after 54 days on the run when the police received a tip-off that he was at his girlfriend’s house at Opuwo.

A police source confirmed that someone “close” to Rebebe provided the tip-off.

FEBRUARY

A Windhoek man allegedly stabbed his wife with a pair of scissors in the city’s Rocky Crest area two days after Valentine’s Day.

According to a police spokesperson, the suspect, who is believed to be in his late 40s, stabbed his wife, identified as Helen Onesmus (43) multiple times, resulting in her death in their backyard flat.

Namibian Police spokesperson chief inspector Elifas Kuwinga at the time said: “It is alleged that the married couple, who were in the process of a divorce, were fighting in the flat and as a consequence, the male suspect stabbed the wife with scissors resulting in the victim succumbing to the stab wounds.”

MARCH

In March a love triangle almost got a man killed at Uupopo at Ondangwa.

What followed was a wild chase, several gunshots and the two men confronting each other, the police said.

Oshana police inspector Thomas Aiyambo said the involved man (30) received a text message from his girlfriend to visit her at around 23h00 – when another boyfriend turned up.

The woman allegedly told the first man to hide in the toilet, since her other boyfriend was dangerous.

The man hid in the toilet as instructed, but after a few minutes decided to sneak out and leave the room.

The other boyfriend allegedly saw the man and started chasing him.

In another incident, a businesswoman had to pay back N$4 million of N$6.6 million she benefited from the now defunct Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Bank.

Tania Hangula received N$6.6 million from the bank between 2015 and 2019 – some of which was used to buy a beach property, a Mercedes-Benz, and to fund her trips to Dubai and other countries.

Hangula is said to have been reluctant to pay back the money over the years, but in March changed her mind.

She finally agreed to refund the bank in instalments, starting in September until 2029.

APRIL

In April, Likando Mambena (44), a resident of Chefuzwe, stunned the country by surviving a lion attack.

Some lions, suspected to have escaped from Chobe National Park in Botswana, were spotted near the Cowboy and Daily settlements shortly before the incident.

Prior to attacking Mambena, the lions reportedly killed several livestock.

Mambena recounted the terrifying encounter.

He said he had returned to his village at around 12h30 after feeling exhausted, as conservation officials were still searching for the lions.

“As I walked away from the officials and a crowd of onlookers, I suddenly heard a lion roaring behind me,” Mambena told The Namibian.

“All I did was shout to the conservation officials to shoot it. Fortunately for me they were very fast to respond, and they shot the lion while it was attacking me. I did not really feel anything when it was attacking me; I only realised later that my hand was injured as I saw my blood running.

“It also hurt my right thigh with its claws. I am truly thankful to God that I survived this attack with only a broken arm,” he swaid.

Mambena said he was not in too much pain, although he was referred to Windhoek for further treatment.

MAY

It was revealed that a total of 85 unclaimed bodies were lying in state mortuaries in the Ohangwena, Oshana and Oshikoto regions.

Of these, 17 were at Onandjokwe Hospital’s mortuary, 23 at Engela, 39 at Eenhana, four at Okongo and two at Oshakati.

According to a report from Onandjokwe Hospital, some of the dead passed in February 2023, but their families have not come forward to claim their bodies.

JUNE

A Windhoek resident arrested on a rape charge involving one of her grandchildren denied in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court that she has ever sexually molested her grandson.

The woman (58), who may not be identified to protect the identity of her grandson, also denied that she was present when her son, who is a medical doctor, allegedly sexually molested her grandson in his car at a school in Windhoek in February.

“I was not there,” she told the court.

The woman, who was arrested in June, was testifying in a bail hearing before magistrate Immanuel Udjombala.

She and her son were both charged with one count of rape.

JULY

In July a woman (43) appeared in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura after allegedly luring a minor into a toilet to perform a sexual act.

Petronella Swartz appeared before magistrate Surita Savage on charges of rape and contravening the Combating of Immoral Practices Act of 1980.

Swartz was accused of luring a boy (6) into a toilet and sexually assaulting him at Otjomuise in Windhoek.
She was held at Klein Windhoek Police Station at the time.

AUGUST

A //Kharas region resident accused of murdering his girlfriend on Christmas Day in 2020 told the police he believed he was stabbing a gay apparition making sexual advances towards him.

In reality, he fatally stabbed his girlfriend.

This emerged during testimony heard by judge Dinnah Usiku in the High Court at Windhoek Correctional Facility.

The testimony was delivered by detective warrant officer Daureen Stephanus during the trial of Johannes Saul Claasen (37), a resident of Keetmanshoop.

In the same month, Markus Theodor (21) was stabbed to death at Gemsbock Bar in Gibeon.

It is alleged that Theodor and the suspect argued over N$5, which Theodor allegedly owed the suspect for a long period of time.

He demanded that Theodor pay him immediately.

According to the police, the deceased could not pay back the money, so the suspect stabbed him.

Theodor was transported to the hospital by a private vehicle but died while being attended to by nurses.

The suspect, a 25-year-old male, was arrested.

SEPTEMBER

The Zambezi regional police in September started investigating the deaths of four children who suffocated after getting trapped in an old freezer at the Cowboy settlement at Katima Mulilo.

The incident claimed the lives of Precious Simataa (3), Matengu Chombo (3), Muzimisa Mwaka (4), and Lubilo Variety (6).
Their next of kin have been informed.

Regional police commander commissioner Andreas Shilelo said the children were last seen playing around the freezer.
When one of their guardians went looking for them, they were nowhere to be found.

“Later, the guardian decided to check the freezer and found the children inside. It’s alleged that the children, who were playing together, jumped into the old freezer but could not get out as it was locked,” Shilelo said.

Two of the children were already dead inside, while the other two were rushed to the hospital. In the same month, the South African police reported the arrest of a Namibian woman at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg with a stomach full of drugs.

The Namibian woman, Pauline Mbangula (30), was caught with more than 60 ‘bullets’ of suspected cocaine.

The South African Police in a statement said Mbangula was arrested after she arrived on a flight from Brazil.

They said the South African Revenue Service, and customs and immigration officials were reacting to intelligence about a drug courier who was to land from São Paulo in Brazil.

An X-ray examination showed the presence of foreign objects in the woman’s intestines.