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Heavy jail term for farmer’s killer


“HE literally bit the hand that fed him.”

This was an observation voiced by judge Naomi Shivute in the Windhoek High Court yesterday, when she sentenced a farmworker convicted of murdering his employer nearly four years ago to an effective prison term of 37 and a half years.

Kazana Nicolaus Hausiku, whom Shivute convicted on six charges six weeks ago, violated the fundamental rights of the victims of his crimes, and there is a need to impose a stiff sentence that would deter him and also would-be offenders, the judge said during his sentencing.

Hausiku did not show mercy to his victims when he committed the crimes, Shivute remarked.

She said it was aggravating that Hausiku repaid the kindness of his employer, Namibian Defence Force member Hendrik ‘Henry’ Coetzee (59), by murdering him.

By killing Coetzee and also robbing and kidnapping Coetzee’s wife, Hausiku bit the hand that fed him, Shivute said.

Hausiku (31) killed Coetzee by striking him from behind with an axe, inflicting a fatal head injury in the process.

The murder was committed at Coetzee’s farm in the Otjimbingwe area in the Karibib district on 10 November 2018.

After the murder, Hausiku attacked Coetzee’s wife, threatening her with a panga as he robbed and then kidnapped her in Coetzee’s pickup.

Hausiku fled from the murder scene in the pickup, but did not get far before he overturned the vehicle on a gravel road between Otjimbingwe and Wilhelmstal.

He was arrested at Rundu two days later.

Hausiku did not testify in mitigation of sentence after he had been found guilty, but his defence lawyer, Salomon Kanyemba, told the court he was apologising for what he had done and was remorseful.

Testifying during a presentence hearing two weeks ago, Coetzee’s wife, Maria Coetzee, told the court she could not come to terms with her husband’s death, which she said had left her traumatised, Shivute recounted.

She added that since Hausiku failed to testify after being convicted, the court could attach little weight to his lawyer’s statement that he felt remorse.

“True remorse must be shown by the accused himself,” Shivute remarked.

She was also not persuaded by an argument that Hausiku had used cannabis before he committed the murder and other crimes, and that his criminal culpability had been diminished by that.

There was no evidence to that effect before the court, Shivute said.

She sentenced Hausiku to 21 years’ imprisonment for murder, a jail term of six years, of which half is to be served concurrently with the sentence on the murder charge, for robbery with aggravating circumstances, a prison term of two years for kidnapping, 18 months’ imprisonment for reckless driving, concurrent terms of four months’ imprisonment for driving without a driving licence, and 10 years’ imprisonment on a charge of rape, which Hausiku also committed at the farm. Hausiku has been held in custody since his arrest in November 2018.

State advocate Ethel Ndlovu represented the prosecution during the trial.





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