Two men get double life sentences for gruesome Koës farm murders

The murder of an elderly couple at their farm near Koës in the //Kharas region in February 2018 was a cruel and gruesome crime.

This was a remark made by judge Dinnah Usiku before she sentenced the two men convicted of the double murder, Julius Arndt (47) and Andries Afrikaner (44), both to two terms of imprisonment for life on Tuesday.

Arndt and Afrikaner were found guilty on two charges of murder, a count of housebreaking and robbery with aggravating circumstances, a charge of rape and a charge of conspiring to commit murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances in October last year.

Usiku found them guilty of murdering elderly couple Giel and Sarie Botma, aged 78 and 80, respectively, after they had broken into the couple’s home on their farm near Koës during the night of 2 to 3 February 2018.

During the attack on the couple, Giel Botma was murdered when he was shot in the head with a firearm. Sarie Botma was strangled to death and left locked up in a bathroom in the couple’s house.

“The brutality in which the crimes were committed speaks volumes,” Usiku remarked during the sentencing of Arndt and Afrikaner in the High Court at Windhoek Correctional Facility.

Usiku recounted that letters written by the murdered couple’s two sons were read to the court after the two accused had been found guilty.

One of the sons described his father as a man of quiet strength and integrity and his mother as a kind woman who was subjected to unspeakable violence, the judge noted.

“Their loss has left a wound in their hearts that cannot be healed,” Giel Botma Jr wrote in one of the letters, Usiku said.

“What pains them most is that they did not die due to illness or advanced age, but due to someone who chose to kill them through unimaginable violence.

Their deaths have caused them pain which is very hard to bear with.”

Usiku observed: “The deceased couple were killed in a cruel and gruesome manner. The accused men have shown no remorse over their crimes, but instead tried to pin the blame on each other.”

Arndt, Afrikaner and a third accused, Johannes Christiaan (43), who was acquitted in October last year, were arrested on the day after the incident.

All three of the accused men made self-incriminating statements to a magistrate at Keetmanshoop following their arrest.
In the statements, each of them admitted they had been at the Botmas’ farm during the night the couple was killed.

However, while Arndt and Frederick further admitted they had burgled the couple’s house and implicated each other in connection with the killing of the Botmas, Christiaan claimed he did not enter the farmhouse and had left the scene after he had seen his two co-accused go into the house.

Usiku sentenced Arndt and Afrikaner each to imprisonment for life on each of the two murder charges, a jail term of 15 years for rape, 10 years’ imprisonment for housebreaking and robbery, and 15 years in prison for conspiring to commit murder and robbery.

State advocate Seredine Jacobs represented the prosecution during the trial.

Defence lawyer Joseph Andreas represented Arndt, while Afrikaner did not have legal representation after he was convicted.

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