Gardener guilty of Swakop murder

A DOMESTIC worker of an elderly Swakopmund resident found killed at his house nearly three years ago has been proven guilty on charges of murder and robbery, a judge ruled in the Windhoek High Court on Thursday.

Unaaro Mbemukenga raised a false alibi during his trial, claiming he was not at the home of Swakopmund pensioner Manfred Hartmann (78) when Hartmann was killed on 17 August 2017, acting judge Orben Sibeya said in the judgement in which he found Mbemukenga guilty on both charges on which he stood trial.

Acting judge Sibeya noted that a cap which Mbemukenga had been wearing when he left his home at Swakopmund on the morning of 17 August 2017 was found in the bathroom in which Hartmann was discovered dead the next day, Mbemukenga had items belonging to Hartmann in his possession when he was arrested a day after Hartmann had been killed, and he also admitted guilt when he made a first court appearance before a magistrate near the end of September 2017.

During his trial, Mbemukenga said he left Swakopmund on the morning of 17 August 2017 and travelled to Outjo to visit his daughter, and he did not go to Hartmann’s house, where he was employed as a gardener, that day.

The judge said Mbemukenga was filmed on a closed-circuit security camera system at a service station at the coastal town with a laptop bag, and that a security guard employed there told the court Mbemukenga had given him a laptop, which turned out to belong to Hartmann, on the day Hartmann was killed.

The guard further told the court Mbemukenga had asked him a few days earlier if he would help him tie up “a white man” and take money from him, the judge recounted. The guard said he turned down Mbemukenga’s request for help, telling him white people were not keeping money in their houses any more.

With his first appearance in the Swakopmund Magistrate’s Court, Mbemukenga told the presiding magistrate he had struck Hartmann in the head with a brick and that he then tied Hartmann’s arms and neck with a rope.

Hartmann was a German citizen living in retirement at Swakopmund.

A doctor who carried out an autopsy on Hartmann’s body concluded in a post-mortem report that he died as a result of strangulation.

Acting judge Sibeya convicted Mbemukenga of murder, committed with the direct intention to kill, and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

The case has been postponed to 30 June for a presentence hearing.

State advocate Cliff Lutibezi is prosecuting.

Mbemukenga, who is being kept in custody, is represented by defence lawyer Vernon Lutibezi.

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