Accountant commits suicide at Avis Dam

A WINDHOEK-BASED accountant committed suicide at Avis Dam in Windhoek yesterday, after managing to evade a huge search party that included friends and colleagues and even a helicopter circling the city skies.

The body of 53-year-old Johann Malherbe was discovered just after 11h00, where it lay about a metre from his double-cab bakkie parked next to the dam. He had shot himself in the head with a large-calibre pistol.According to security guards working at the dam, they had first seen Malherbe on Monday morning when he drove his bakkie there, parking it under a tree and then leaving at around lunchtime.According to security guard Johannes Shivute, the same man returned to the dam at around 08h00 yesterday and parked his vehicle at a different location in the parking area.At around 10h00 he called one of the guards and gave him money to buy food, Shivute said.About an hour later, two men came rushing towards the guardhouse, opened the security barrier and ran in.They were looking for “the double-cab bakkie”, they told the guards.When Shivute arrived at the bakkie with the two men, they found Malherbe’s body lying about a metre from the vehicle.The bakkie was apparently locked, with several letters and telephone numbers left on the seats, Johannes said.The guards said they had not heard any gunshots, and thus could not confirm the exact time of the suicide.Earlier in the day, Malherbe’s colleagues had phoned commercial radio station Kosmos Radio to ask for assistance in tracing him while doing their daily traffic report from a helicopter circling the city.However, by the time his colleagues learnt of his whereabouts, it was too late.He had shot himself in the head with a large-calibre pistol.According to security guards working at the dam, they had first seen Malherbe on Monday morning when he drove his bakkie there, parking it under a tree and then leaving at around lunchtime.According to security guard Johannes Shivute, the same man returned to the dam at around 08h00 yesterday and parked his vehicle at a different location in the parking area.At around 10h00 he called one of the guards and gave him money to buy food, Shivute said.About an hour later, two men came rushing towards the guardhouse, opened the security barrier and ran in.They were looking for “the double-cab bakkie”, they told the guards. When Shivute arrived at the bakkie with the two men, they found Malherbe’s body lying about a metre from the vehicle.The bakkie was apparently locked, with several letters and telephone numbers left on the seats, Johannes said.The guards said they had not heard any gunshots, and thus could not confirm the exact time of the suicide.Earlier in the day, Malherbe’s colleagues had phoned commercial radio station Kosmos Radio to ask for assistance in tracing him while doing their daily traffic report from a helicopter circling the city.However, by the time his colleagues learnt of his whereabouts, it was too late.