Accused man denies role in fatal house robbery

ONE of the men accused of murdering a Walvis Bay resident during an armed home invasion in June 2016 told a judge in the Windhoek High Court yesterday that he was in Windhoek when the crimes over which he is charged were committed at the coast.

David Shekundja (41) told judge Dinnah Usiku he was in Windhoek, where he lives, at the time that Walvis Bay resident Hans-Jörg Möller was fatally injured during a house robbery.

Shekundja also said he did not know any of the four men standing trial with him before his arrest, which took place at his home in Windhoek on 17 June 2016.

The testimony of a state witness who told the court that he and two of the other accused on trial before Usiku – David Tashiya and Elly Ndapuka Hinaivali – were at her house at Walvis Bay on 16 June 2016, and that she prepared a meal for them that day, was not correct, Shekundja said as well.

That witness prepared food for other people, because he was in Windhoek on that day, he said.

Shekundja, Tashiya (36), Hinaivali (37), Panduleni Gotlieb (37) and Malakia Shiweda (35) are standing trial on charges of murder, attempted murder, housebreaking and robbery with aggravating circumstances, conspiring to commit housebreaking and armed robbery, and possession of a firearm and ammunition without a licence.

They denied guilt on all counts when their trial began in August 2021, after several earlier delays.

All of the charges are linked to a burglary and armed robbery during which Möller was shot in the abdomen in his home at Walvis Bay during the night of 16 to 17 June 2016.

Möller (50) died in a hospital a day after the robbery.

The state is alleging that goods valued at about N$175 000 were stolen from Möller’s house during the robbery.

In his testimony yesterday, Shekundja also disputed evidence given by Möller’s wife, who told the court she recognised him as one of the men who attacked her and her husband in their home.

Shekundja said the description that she gave of him could fit other people, too.

The trial is continuing.

The five accused are being held in custody.