Dark Christmas at Stampriet

Two suicides, allegedly triggered by arguments among lovers, were committed at Stampriet during the Christmas weekend.

Detective Inspector Samuel Gariseb told Namibian Sun that 47-year-old Hans Skrywer committed suicide after he and his girlfriend argued on Christmas Eve. The girlfriend had allegedly locked herself up in her room during the argument, only to discover that her boyfriend has hanged himself in the living room when she unlocked the door. In another incident at the town on Family Day, the 51-year-old Stephanus Veldskoen killed his 23-year-old girlfriend, Diana Philander. The two had a fight and in the process Veldskoen stabbed his girlfriend with a knife. He then went to the toilet and hanged himself with a piece of wire. At Schlip, three men gang raped a minor on December 23. All of them had been arrested and will appear in court in Mariental today. The trio is Salom Haimbodi (27), Irvin Vries (22) and Johannes Grootdood (20), according to police records.

The following day, a 39-year-old woman was also raped at Gibeon. The suspect is well-known but no arrest has been made yet. At Mariental, four people have been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol between December 23 and December 24.
The Christmas weekend at Rehoboth was relatively quiet, except for last Friday night when the misuse of alcohol and drunkenness had the police with their hands full. According to Inspector Marschell Diergaardt of Rehoboth, 30 people were arrested for being drunk in public or alternatively drinking in public.

“Various types of alcohol were confiscated, and we also have to close 35 shebeens as they were operating after their trading hours. However, I am in general happy with the way liquor outlet owners obey the Liquor Act,” said Diergaardt.

He said a total of 87 people were searched for dangerous weapons, adding that 23 knives, six screwdrivers, three pangas, one bicycle chain, two scissors (half) and five broken bottle necks were confiscated.

According to Inspector Diergaardt, two minors aged 13 and 17 were arrested for robbery. One of them has since been linked to an earlier murder at the town.

“The public are warned that the clean-up operation will continue for the next weekend and the following weekends until the end of January 2012. We are aiming for a peaceful 2012,” said Inspector Diergaardt.