Job Kozonguizi, a man of the law, friend to all

ONE of Namibia’s nine Deputy Prosecutors General, Job Kozonguizi, died of a suspected heart attack at his home in Windhoek on Saturday.

Kozonguizi was 37 years old. “It’s a big loss to my office, to lose such an experienced prosecutor – a person who has made a lot of contributions to our criminal justice system,” Prosecutor General Martha Imalwa told The Namibian at her office on Monday afternoon.She said she would remember Kozonguizi not only as a disciplined staff member, who was not afraid to take on any sort of case assigned to him, but also as an everyman’s friend – someone who liked cracking jokes and who made friends wherever he was posted during his career as a prosecutor.Kozonguizi had been serving Namibia’s prosecuting service since November 1994.He started his career at the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court, before he was transferred to Katima Mulilo in April 1995.A series of subsequent transfers saw him prosecuting in Magistrate’s and Regional Courts at Omaruru, Grootfontein, Oshakati, Otjiwarongo and Rundu before he was transferred to the High Court in Windhoek in March 2003.In December last year, he was promoted to Deputy Prosecutor General.Kozonguizi leaves behind three children, aged nine, six and four, his uncle, Darius Mieze, said on Monday.He was unmarried.Mieze added that Kozonguizi had suffered from a heart condition in recent years.He said Kozonguizi was raised by another uncle, Namibia’s first permanently appointed Ombudsman after Independence, Fanuel Kozonguizi, after his father had died at quite a young age.NOTABLE CASES Kozonguizi studied in South Africa, where he obtained a B.Admin degree at the University of Durban-Westville and an LL B degree at the University of Natal.He then obtained an LL M degree, specialising in mining law, at the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom.His career as prosecutor saw him conducting part of the prosecution against former world champion boxer Harry Simon over the fatal car accident that Simon was accused of causing between Swakop­mund and Walvis Bay in November 2002.In the High Court, he won a conviction against three men accused of murdering a German-born farmer in the Karibib area in January 2002 – one of the culprits received a 45-and-a-half-year jail term, while another was sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment in August last year.He last year won a conviction and 57-year jail term against a former farmworker who was convicted in the High Court of carrying out a double murder at a farm near Maltahoehe in August 2001.Kozonguizi was born in the Aminuis area, where his mother still lives, and that is where he will return on Saturday.His family is planning to lay Kozonguizi to rest at Onderombapa in the Aminuis area on Saturday, Mieze said.In Windhoek a memorial service for Kozonguizi will be held at the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Macedonia) in Katutura at 16h30 tomorrow.”It’s a big loss to my office, to lose such an experienced prosecutor – a person who has made a lot of contributions to our criminal justice system,” Prosecutor General Martha Imalwa told The Namibian at her office on Monday afternoon.She said she would remember Kozonguizi not only as a disciplined staff member, who was not afraid to take on any sort of case assigned to him, but also as an everyman’s friend – someone who liked cracking jokes and who made friends wherever he was posted during his career as a prosecutor.Kozonguizi had been serving Namibia’s prosecuting service since November 1994.He started his career at the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court, before he was transferred to Katima Mulilo in April 1995.A series of subsequent transfers saw him prosecuting in Magistrate’s and Regional Courts at Omaruru, Grootfontein, Oshakati, Otjiwarongo and Rundu before he was transferred to the High Court in Windhoek in March 2003.In December last year, he was promoted to Deputy Prosecutor General.Kozonguizi leaves behind three children, aged nine, six and four, his uncle, Darius Mieze, said on Monday.He was unmarried.Mieze added that Kozonguizi had suffered from a heart condition in recent years.He said Kozonguizi was raised by another uncle, Namibia’s first permanently appointed Ombudsman after Independence, Fanuel Kozonguizi, after his father had died at quite a young age.NOTABLE CASES Kozonguizi studied in South Africa, where he obtained a B.Admin degree at the University of Durban-Westville and an LL B degree at the University of Natal.He then obtained an LL M degree, specialising in mining law, at the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom.His career as prosecutor saw him conducting part of the prosecution against former world champion boxer Harry Simon over the fatal car accident that Simon was accused of causing between Swakop­mund and Walvis Bay in November 2002.In the High Court, he won a conviction against three men accused of murdering a German-born farmer in the Karibib area in January 2002 – one of the culprits received a 45-and-a-half-year jail term, while another was sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment in August last year.He last year won a conviction and 57-year jail term against a former farmworker who was convicted in the High Court of carrying out a double murder at a farm near Maltahoehe in August 2001.Kozonguizi was born in the Aminuis area, where his mother still lives, and that is where he will return on Saturday.His family is planning to lay Kozonguizi to rest at Onderombapa in the Aminuis area on Saturday, Mieze said.In Windhoek a memorial service for Kozonguizi will be held at the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Macedonia) in Katutura at 16h30 tomorrow.