Civil claim of millions looms against Jandé Dippenaar

The long expected start of the murder trial against Jandré Dippenaar, who stands accused of causing the horrific car accident in December 2014 close to Henties Bay claiming the lives of six people, will only commence in January 2017.
The case was postpon-ed yesterday in the Re-gional Court of Swakopmund to grant the defence more time to peruse and analyse new pieces of evidence. In the meantime the surviving German tourist, Antonia Joschko, intends to file a civil lawsuit against Dippenaar in the High Court of Namibia.
A defining piece of evidence to solidify the state’s case in the murder trial was the main reason for the postponement.
Yesterday it emerged in the Regional Court that the state wishes to use a 202 page long report detailing the exact circumstances surrounding the accident as one of the main pieces of evidence. As the report was only made available to both the state and the defence about a month ago, Magistrate Gaynor Poulton postponed the trial.
“We are very disappointed about the postponement, but we also understand the circumstances and why it happened. It wouldn’t have been different in Germany,” said Dr Eberhard Seybold, the lawyer representing the survivor, Antonia Joschko, yesterday to namib times. He continued: “We wanted to use the evidence of the state’s case for our civil law suit, but we will go ahead with our case as soon as possible and file it in the High Court of Namibia.”
The accident occurred on 29 December 2014 about twelve kilometres outside Henties Bay on the road to-wards Swakopmund. Dippenaar, who was driving an FJ Cruiser with three passengers, allegedly smashed head-on into a Ford Ranger carrying a German family, who was on holiday in Namibia. Dippenaar survived with serious injuries, while Dinah Pretorius (30), owner of the vehicle and originally from Gobabis, Char-lene Schoonbee (24) from Windhoek and Jan-Carel Horn (27) were killed. Antonia was the sole survivor of the other vehicle, losing her father Walter Helmut Joschko (48), mother Stephanie Dorothea Schemick Joschko (49) and 19-year-old sister Alexandra Marlene Joschko.
Jandré Dippenaar is facing six charges of murder, a charge of driving without a valid licence and a charge of fraud for allegedly pretending to the Roads Authority that his driving license was lost on 17 December 2014 and inducing the RA to issue him with a duplicate without having a valid driver’s licence.
“We need more time to prepare our case. We received an extra report, which we are having analysed by an expert from Cape Town and are not ready to proceed,” Defence lawyer Petrie Theron, representing Dippe-naar, said. State Prose-cutor Hezekiel Iipinge didn’t object and said that although the state is ready to proceed, he only received the report in April this year and that it contains “crucial and important information and cannot not be part of the trial.” Initially the trial was supposed to run for this entire week, but it was now set down to run from 23 January 2017 until 3 February. “I request that we do not delay the trial unnecessarily and that we will commence with the trial on the said date,” Magistrate Poulton said.
Namib Times was reliably informed that the report was put together by a private firm from South Africa, specializing in the reconstruction of accident scenes and that the report was commissioned by the insurance firm Hollard. The newspaper understands that the report details the exact incident and that it includes various incriminating statements. Amongst others it states in the report that Dippenaar, who was travelling towards Henties Bay, was allegedly driving well above the speed limit and that he overtook three vehicles on a blind crest, thereby causing the horrific accident.
“It was difficult coming back to Namibia,” Antonia Joschko said after the court appearance in an interview with Namib Times. “I do love the beautiful country though and have also good memories with my family. Driving on the road brings back the painful memory though,” she continued. Antonia is a key witness in the state’s case and was prepared to be questioned yesterday.
Iipinge will present the state’s case, while Dippenaar will be represented by advocate Louis Botha when the trial commences. Dippenaar will be expected to plead on his next appearance.