Okahandja remembers - even as the nation moves on

Okahandja remembers. Not in headlines. Not in breaking news alerts. Not in the urgency that once gripped a nation. But in the quiet.

It has been nearly a year since the town became the epicentre of one of Namibia’s most disturbing episodes. Between 20 March and 25 April 2025, three young girls were taken — their lives cut short in a way that shook even the most hardened observers.

Five-year-old Ingrid Maasdorp. Six-year-old Roswinds Fabianu. Fifteen-year-old Beyoncé !Kharuxas.

Their names once filled the airwaves. Their faces flooded television and mobile screens. Their stories sparked protests, prayer vigils, and a wave of anger that forced the country to confront itself.

In late April 2025, as outrage peaked, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah travelled to Okahandja. Standing before grieving families and a shaken community, she promised action.

“I don’t want a Namibian child going to school but scared, not knowing what will happen when the school closes,” she said.

A high-level task force was swiftly established, chaired by gender minister Emma Kantema and comprising education minister Sanet Steenkamp, health minister Esperance Luvindao, and justice minister Fillemon Wise Immanuel. What began as a criminal investigation quickly evolved into a test of the State itself.

In the weeks that followed, there was movement: increased police visibility, community engagements, and public commitments to strengthen child protection systems. For a moment, it felt as though something fundamental might shift.

But nearly a year on, that momentum appears to have dissipated.

The noise faded. Updates from the task force became scarce. The national conversation lost its urgency. There has been little public accounting of what was implemented, what failed, and what remains unresolved.

Today, Okahandja is calm again — perhaps too calm. So is the country. Life, in its stubborn way, has resumed. Children walk to school. Shops open and close. The streets carry on.

But beneath that normalcy lingers a question that refuses to go away: what changed?

Psycho-social support

Kantema told Namibian Sun yesterday she was preparing for an engagement and referred questions to gender ministry spokesperson Lucas Haufiku.

Haufiku said the task force met with affected families and provided psycho-social support.

“Other than that, I am not sure if there was anything else done,” he said, adding that he would follow up with the minister’s office.

Otjozondjupa police spokesperson Inspector Maureen Mbeha, who was attending a community meeting, referred queries to Deputy Commissioner Nawa, who said investigations are ongoing.

“We are busy,” Nawa said, noting that numerous individuals have been questioned in connection with the murders.

A police officer based in Okahandja, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a lack of community cooperation continues to hamper progress.

“No one came forward with reliable information. We are trying our best, working from nowhere,” the officer said.

Cold cases, familiar silence

The passage of time has a way of dulling outrage — and adding cases to a growing list of unresolved deaths.

In Katutura, 35-year-old Delysia ||Garoes was found dead in a riverbed in Damara 15 in May 2025. No suspect has been brought to book.

Juanita Karolus, 33, was raped and murdered near the Katutura Youth Complex in October 2025.

In June 2022, Charmaine Saron, 28, was found stabbed to death behind the Hosianah Parish Church in Katutura.

Then there was 17-year-old Magdalena Stoffels, killed in July 2010 in a riverbed in Khomasdal. Police initially arrested Junias Fillipus, who was found nearby with injuries and bloodstained clothing. He spent months in custody before forensic evidence excluded him, leading to his release in 2011. His subsequent lawsuit for unlawful arrest and detention lost momentum. The case remains unsolved.

Nine-year-old Avihe Cheryl Ujaha was abducted in broad daylight from Single Quarters in Katutura. Her body was later discovered near Staanvas Circle in Khomasdal — turning a frantic search into national grief. Her case, too, faded from the spotlight.

Between 2005 and 2007, a serial killer claimed the lives of five women, scattering body parts along the B1 road between Windhoek and Okahandja. A German-born Namibian man was arrested but later acquitted due to insufficient evidence. Another suspect, previously convicted of murder, was implicated after his suicide in 2008, with DNA links raising suspicion — but nothing conclusive. The case was never officially closed.