City child murder case postponed

THREE Zimbabwean citizens charged with the murder of a nine-year-old girl, whose body was found burnt in a rubbish skip in Windhoek in January this year, have made a return to court after six months in custody.

Edward Nkata, his wife Caroline Nkata, and fellow Zimbabwean Rachael Kureva were back in the dock in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court yesterday on charges of murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, defeating or obstructing the course of justice, and violating a dead human body.

Magistrate Celma Amadhila postponed their case to 14 October for further investigations to be carried out, after public prosecutor Cedric Mundia informed the court that forensic laboratory test results were still awaited and four witness statements still had to be recorded in the investigation of the matter.

The three accused are remaining in custody in the meantime.

They are charged with having murdered Kureva’s daughter, the nine-year-old Akundaishe Natalie Chipomho, in Windhoek on 23 or 24 January this year, and of having tried to destroy evidence of the killing by dumping the girl’s body in a rubbish skip in the city’s Rhino Park area and setting her remains on fire.

The body was found on 25 January.

During her first court appearance on 29 January, Caroline Nkata told Amadhila she was guilty of the charges “to an extent”.

She said her husband had beaten Natalie, and after the girl died he forced her to accompany him when he went to dump the body and later went to set it alight.

She also told the court Natalie had been beaten at their home, where the Nkata couple, their three children, Kureva and Natalie lived together in a flat.

She herself did not beat Natalie, Nkata added.

At the time of the arrest of the three accused, the police reported that according to neighbours of the couple and Kureva, the children living with them, and specifically Natalie, had been assaulted on several occasions, and that this had been reported to social services last year.

Defence lawyers Milton Engelbrecht and Mpule Siyomunji represented the three accused yesterday.