“THE consequences will be devastating.”
This, according to senior Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security official Likius Valombola, is what would happen if he is sent to prison for murdering a young man in a shooting incident in Windhoek three years ago.
“My children will no longer be able to go to school. The house will be repossessed; the car will be repossessed,” Valombola said.
He and his family would be in a dead-end street, he said.
Valombola (57) made these remarks when testifying before judge Claudia Claasen during a presentence hearing in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.
His sentencing is scheduled to take place on 2 December.
Valombola told the judge the death of Helao Ndjaba, who died at the age of 25 on 28 May 2018, had left a scar on his life and on his heart.
“It pains me a lot,” said Valombola.
Ndjaba, who was a former executive committee member of the Namibia National Students Organisation, died in a Windhoek hospital a week and a half after Valombola had shot him twice in the head in the Okuryangava area of Windhoek during the night of 18 to 19 May 2018.
During his trial, Valombola claimed he only fired warning shots into the air with a .22 pistol when confronted with a group of people who he said were aggressively banging on the side of a car in which he and his family were at Okuryangava.
Claasen rejected his version, though, when she convicted him of murder – although committed without a direct intention to kill – two and a half weeks ago.
The judge concluded that Valombola had been reckless when he fired the shots while annoyed about the perceived arrogance of a group of young people who refused to move their car out of a street in which their vehicle was blocking one lane.
A brother of Ndjaba, Lamek Ndjaba, also testified during the presentence hearing yesterday.
He said his family was badly affected by the death of his brother, who was a breadwinner for their family.
His brother had dreams of creating a business empire, he said.
“My brother was a selfless leader. At a time that our country and this continent lack selfless leaders, its a great loss,” he said.
He also told the judge he did not want to accept an apology from Valombola and did not forgive him for the killing of his brother.
Addressing the judge after the testimony had been heard, defence lawyer Sisa Namandje said Ndjabas death was a tragedy for Ndjabas family and also for Valombola.
Namandje argued that Valombola had been someone who served people for most of his life.
Valombola told the court he went into exile as an 11-year-old boy in 1976, joined the liberation struggle led by Swapo, was educated as a teacher in Cuba, and thereafter taught Namibians in Zambia, before he worked as a teacher and principal in Namibia after independence, and joined the home affairs ministry in 2010.
He has been the commissioner for refugees in the home affairs ministry since 2015, he said.
Before the shooting that claimed Ndjabas life, he never received training in handling firearms, and had never used his pistol for shooting, he said.
Namandje suggested that Valombola should be sentenced to an entirely suspended prison term of five years, in addition to a jail term of two years or a fine.
State advocate Ethel Ndlovu argued that someone who shoots at people in anger is a danger to society.
She suggested that he should be sentenced to 24 years imprisonment.
Valombola was in police custody for a week before he was released on bail in the amount of N$15 000 at the end of May 2018.
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