A warning statement of a Zimbabwean national accused of murdering and dumping the body of Akundaishe Natalie Chipomho (9) in a municipal bin in 2020 was read into the record yesterday in the Windhoek High Court.
The statement was read during the testimony of state witness, former warrant officer, Ndilyowike Josef.
In it, the statement of accused Edward Nkata, reveals that in January that year, while the mother of the deceased was at work, he found her in a room doing something bad and asked her about it.
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The deceased allegedly replied that she wanted to be free and wanted to do that.
Nkata allegedly got angry and slapped her, and while trying to also kick her on the back, she ducked, and the kick allegedly landed on the back of her head.
Due to the force, the deceased allegedly fell hard to the floor, hitting her forehead on impact, resulting in a visible bruise on it.
The statement continues that Nkata poured water on the deceased and did first aid on her to resuscitate her after she was non-responsive.
It further reads that although she was unresponsive, the deceased was still breathing.
Nkata allegedly took her to the sitting room but then decided to take her to the garage, where he put her in a big dish, washed and changed her clothes and then laid her on a mattress.
He allegedly checked on her from time to time, but he found her dead the next day.
The statement continues that the accused was shocked and undecided whether to report to the police.
But after allegedly getting scared that he will also be killed, he decided to dispose of the body and burn it so nobody will trace it to him.
Nkata, in the company of his wife, Caroline, brought paraffin and matches and dragged the body in a dustbin to the municipal skip container around Windhoek North.
After dumping the body there, he then set it alight.
He said he did not know why his wife was following him while she was carrying a small baby, but that he never threatened her or coerced her.
"It was never my intention to kill Akundaishe, but it was a mistake that I did," reads the statement.
Josef further testified that before the arrest of the couple, he was notified that the burnt dead body of a minor was found in a municipal skip container in Rhino Park in Windhoek North.
At the scene, he observed dragging marks extending to the container and knew that someone went there and dumped the child before they burnt the body there.
He stated that investigations into the matter led them to a CCTV that recorded a male pulling a dustbin in the company of a female carrying a baby to and from the container.
Further investigations then traced the matter to the couple and the mother of the deceased.
Caroline and Erdward Nkata, alongside the mother of the deceased, Rachel Kureva, face charges in relation to the death of the nine-year-old girl between 23 and 25 January 2020 in Windhoek.
The trio face one count of murder and further counts of violating a dead body, defeating or attempting to defeat the course of justice, fraud, alternatively uttering a forged document, forgery and contravening the Immigration Control Act.
The State alleges that between 23 and 25 January 2020, the Nkatas kicked and hit Chipomho with unknown objects all over her body and head, leaving her unconscious, and then placed her in a plastic bucket and waited for her to die.
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Chipomho's body was alleged to have been transported in a wheelie bin to a municipal skip located a distance from the accused's flat, where it was dumped and set ablaze.
It is further alleged the Nkatas defrauded Progress Private School of N$6 000, where Caroline, who was employed as a teacher, allegedly told the school that Chipomho and an 11-year-old minor were her biological children.
Thus, the minor children were not required to pay school fees by virtue of her being an employee at the school, and they also forged school reports for the children.
They are further accused of overstaying in the country for seven months after their employment permits expired.
The State is represented by Ethel Ndlovu, Edward by Mbanga Siyomunji, Caroline by Milton Engelbrecht, and Kureva by Joseph Andreas.
