Black weekend

Erongo men continue the scorch of rape and murder of woman and children

Isaac Chikosi

Three Erongo females, one who is an eight years old girl, suffered violence and rape at the hands of men over the weekend. This latest wave of gender-based violence comes only days after a Walvis Bay man slit his girlfriend’s throat during a domestic argument.

The month of September is today in its tenth day, and the victim tally now stands at four females in Erongo either kil-led, assaulted or raped. All by men to whom they entrusted their lives.
In one of the incidents two men, aged 67 and 51, made a first appearance in the Omaruru magistrate’s court yesterday following their arrest for the repeated rape of an eight year old girl at Uis. The men promised their victim money and over a period of days had sexual inter-course with her.
The grandmother of the victim left the girl in the men’s care and they allegedly misused this position of trust to commit sex-ual crimes.
In a second incident a woman fell victim to rape at Arandis on Saturday night. The woman excessively consumed alcohol and fell asleep. A man identified as Freshly Claasen (24) took advantage of the woman and raped her. One of the woman’s friends discovered Claasen having sexual intercourse with the sleeping woman and sounded the alarm which led to his arrest.
In Swakopmund a thirty-years-old man from the Matutura suburb made a first appearance in the Swakopmund magistrates court for an incident on Saturday night during which he allegedly tried to suffocate her with a blanket.
The couple had an argument which led to the perpetrator be-coming aggressive. The victim tried to avoid an escalation of the domestic dispute and went to sleep. The perpetrator followed her and then tried to suffocate her with a blanket.
The victim managed to free herself and there-by saved her own life. She fled. A television set valued at N$8 000 was also smashed by the perpetrator during the violent domestic dispute, according to the latest police report.
In the wake of incidents over the week-end, the debate must continue: how and when will Namibian men come to the table and end the scorch of violence against our nation’s vulnerable. These are our children, women, the disabled and the elderly.