LPM MP Utaara Mootu demands answers after rape, murder of Ingrid Maasdorp (5)

Landless People’s Movement (LPM) member of parliament Utaara Mootu is demanding answers on the rape and murder of Ingrid Maasdorp (5) at Okahanjda in March.

The girl’s family members say they are losing faith in the police, while the perpetrator is still at large.

A petition calling for justice for Ingrid, launched last month, has reached 7 142 signatures since last week.

Grandmother Dolly Maasdorp (54), who raised Ingrid since birth, says the girl was allegedly dropped off at KW von Marees Combined School at Okahandja on the morning of 20 March, but never returned home.

Maasdorp has told The Namibian that her granddaughter’s body was discovered in a river bed under a bridge, battered and bearing signs of sexual assault, two days later.

This yesterday prompted Mootu to pose questions to minister of home affairs, immigration, safety and security Lucia lipumbu in the National Assembly on the increase of violence, rape, and murder involving the country’s children.

“Recently we have seen reports of Ingrid Maasdorp, a five-year-old from Okahandja, who was brutally raped and killed in the most gruesome way.
“She is not the only victim. There are reports of horrific rape and murder cases like that of eight-month-old Simone Rooi, as well as the

disappearance of Spencer Nakale in December 2020, among many others,” Mootu said.

She said these acts are not isolated incidents, but a reflection of deeper systemic issues and structural violence that continue to plague society.
They also point to the broader institutional failure to ensure a safe and secure environment for Namibia’s children, she said.

Mootu asked what specific steps the ministry has taken to ensure a thorough and timely investigation into Ingrid’s case.

She asked whether the ministry had established protocols for evaluating and acting on testimonies from child witnesses in criminal investigations, and whether these protocols are followed in Ingrid’s case.

The police recently acknowledged their limited progress in solving high-profile murder cases. Mootu said and asked what measures the ministry is implementing to improve transparency, and to keep the public informed about ongoing investigations.

Considering increasing violence against children, Mootu asked what preventative strategies the ministry is deploying to enhance child safety, particularly in school environments and public spaces.

Former member of parliament Patience Masua says: “We are not angry enough about what happened to Maasdorp.

“We are not making enough noise for our children to be safe. And this speaks to a deeper social economic challenge we face.”

In a statement issued yesterday, LPM Youth Command Element national spokesperson William Minnie said it is no longer enough to speak of reactive justice.

He said the country needs a bold and far-reaching preventative strategy to end violence against children.

That includes visible and functional safety mechanisms in schools, community-level protection frameworks, and a standing commitment to transparency in the progress of child abuse and murder cases, he said.

“Let the memory of Ingrid Maasdorp, Simone Rooi, and countless unnamed others remind us that justice delayed is justice denied, but silence is complicity,” he said.

Minnie said the police must be urgently capacitated, trained, and reoriented to respond swiftly and sensitively to cases involving children.
Routine negligence must come to an end, he said.