Zorena Jantze
THE father of nine-year-old Hendrina Mupolo, who was run over and killed by farmer Johan Meyer in 2022 for picking beans in the farmer’s field, has reached a confidential settlement agreement with Meyer.
According to a police report at the time, the incident had happened on 1 May 2022, Sunday, between 08:00 and 09:12 at Plot K11, Hardap scheme in Mariental, whereby the deceased’s mother and several others were harvesting beans in the field of Meyer without his consent. The farmer spotted them, and he then chased them with his white Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle. In the process, the deceased nine-year-old Hendrina fell, and the vehicle drove over her, causing internal injuries resulting in her death.
In a witness statement made earlier in the matter, Mupolo, the victim’s father, recounted the horror of seeing his little girl in despair.
“At the time when I arrived at the scene, I found my daughter lying on the ground, full of dust and other debris. She was clearly in pain and crying. At times, she would lose consciousness. When she came around and saw me crying, she would say to me: ‘Papa, don’t cry. I am going to Aunty.’ I took it as a reference to an aunt of hers who passed away earlier. This was even more traumatising, and made me cry more, but I refused to see the reality that my child was about to die. What aggravated the trauma was that whilst I, the mother of the child and other bystanders would try to comfort the child and to make sense of what happened, the defendant (Meyer) would continuously shout vulgar words at us, and threatening that he would shoot us or drive over us if we did not immediately leave his farm,” Mupolo said.
The parents of Hendrina, Mupolo and Annemarie !Auchamus, sued the farmer in the amount of over N$1 million in July 2022; however, this amount was not agreed upon, and the parties did not reach a settlement.
However, a new settlement agreement was reached between Elias Mupolo and Meyer on 25 October 2024, in which the lawyers representing the parties said that the parties have settled the matter and that the matter be removed from the roll.
Upon inquiries from the Informanté on how much was paid to the father, Mupolo, Norman Tjombe, who represented the father in the matter, said that he is not at liberty to say as the parties have agreed upon a confidentiality clause in the agreement.
Mupolo, when called by the Informanté, also decided to remain quiet and referred Informanté back to his lawyer.