15 years for stealing 3 head of cattle

HAFENANYE Hamutenya Paulus was found guilty in the Oshakati Magistrate Court on June 26 2007 of the theft of three head of cattle and sentenced to an effective 15 years in jail.

The cattle were stolen from Veronika Shihafeleni, a widow from Ondjengo village near Oshakati in Oshana Region. Paulus, who is Shihafeleni’s brother in-law, apparently approached her 13-year-old son on February 1, 2004 and told him that three of the cattle that he was looking after, two heifers and a bull, belonged to him.He claimed that the cattle, valued at N$9 000, had been given to him by the boy’s father.Paulus forcibly took the cattle and was subsequently arrested and charged with a case of stocktheft.When he appeared in the Oshakati Magistrate Court before Magistrate Thomas Kanime, Paulus agreed that he had taken the cattle from his brother’s widow.He said, he took them because these cattle belong to the traditional family group as a whole and his brother, the deceased, while he was alive, gave him the permission to take care of them for the family.None of the family members could verify that this was true and Shihafeleni also testified that as the executor of the estate, she had never given permission to the accused to take any cattle.Magistrate Kanime found Paulus guilty on a charge of stock theft and sentenced him to 15 years in jail.He noted that according to the Law on Stocktheft, where the value of the animal stolen is more than N$500, the Magistrate can impose 20 years imprisonment.Paulus, who is Shihafeleni’s brother in-law, apparently approached her 13-year-old son on February 1, 2004 and told him that three of the cattle that he was looking after, two heifers and a bull, belonged to him.He claimed that the cattle, valued at N$9 000, had been given to him by the boy’s father.Paulus forcibly took the cattle and was subsequently arrested and charged with a case of stocktheft.When he appeared in the Oshakati Magistrate Court before Magistrate Thomas Kanime, Paulus agreed that he had taken the cattle from his brother’s widow.He said, he took them because these cattle belong to the traditional family group as a whole and his brother, the deceased, while he was alive, gave him the permission to take care of them for the family.None of the family members could verify that this was true and Shihafeleni also testified that as the executor of the estate, she had never given permission to the accused to take any cattle.Magistrate Kanime found Paulus guilty on a charge of stock theft and sentenced him to 15 years in jail.He noted that according to the Law on Stocktheft, where the value of the animal stolen is more than N$500, the Magistrate can impose 20 years imprisonment.