Outjo residents in uproar over men beaten up for ‘Collecting firewood on private farm’

Staff Reporter

THE community of Outjo is in uproar and marched to the police station and magistrate court in the small town after five men accused of torturing and beating up five victims for collecting firewood at their farm were granted bail today.

The suspects, Gabriel Paulus (41), Gabriel Alpheus (32), Johan Sales (41), Robert Dankie (30), and Jerry Mbundu appeared in the Outjo magistrate court on 20 March 2024 and were granted bail of N$ 3000 each. The suspects were all arrested on Sunday 18 March 2024. The victims were allegedly stripped of their clothes, thrown with water and whipped and beaten up by the suspects, resulting in one of them being hospitalized. Thereafter, they were left abandoned on the Kamanjab road. The community members claim that suspects in the case who beat up the victims have previously been involved in other assault cases, but that the police have turned a blind eye to the racially motivated assault cases.

Deputy Commissioner Paavo Iyambo, crimes investigations coordinator in the Kunene region, responded to allegations that the police in Outjo did not wish to open a case against some of the white suspects in the matter. “To start with, the issue of saying the police didn’t want to open a case is not true. The victims refused to lay charges, but later they came back to the police station and they laid charges on Monday. The community members were, however, not happy about the bail granted in the matter. I was told that people are protesting because of this,” Deputy Commissioner Iyambo said.

According to an incident report provided by the Namibian police, the incident of assault with grievous bodily harm happened on Saturday, 17 March 2024, at around midday, 12:00, at Farm National in the Outjo district.

It is alleged that five male victims drove with their donkey cart from Soweto location to the direction of Farm National on Outjo/Otavi road to collect firewood. It’s alleged that they parked their cart next to the road and went into the farm camp to gather firewood. It is further alleged that while in the farm camp, they were found by the farm workers (suspects) who took them to the farm and assaulted them with sambok or whips all over their bodies.