Hausiku family awaits DNA results amid more and more questions

“Something just doesn’t add up,” says 24-year-old Susana Hausiku, as she questions the troubling story behind the boy believed to be her biological brother, who disappeared 15 years ago from Mile 20 in Kavango East.Speaking to the Namibian Sun from her family’s shack in Rundu’s Ndama informal settlement, Hausiku said she finds it suspicious that the family who raised the boy never reported anything, despite knowing he was not theirs.“I feel like no effort was made by the people who raised him to report the matter about them having a missing child,” she said.According to Hausiku, when she met the young man in Arandis last month, he told her that he remembered very little about his early childhood.“When I met him in Arandis last month before the DNA test, he didn’t remember much. He only recalled being with an unknown man in 2010.”She said the boy remembered stopping in Otjiwarongo and staying with a Damara-speaking family before moving to a farm near Okahandja.She said the young man told her "the man’s name was Lukas Shavuka" and that he allegedly remembers that during their stay, Shavuka allegedly stole three goats and slaughtered them."He even threatened to kill him if he ever told anyone,” Hausiku said she was told. Hope According to her, the boy was eventually abandoned in Arandis, where he was taken in and raised by a family who now refer to him as Steven Shavuka.The young man, now 20, is believed by some to be Joseph Kandjimi Hausiku, who disappeared at the age of five. DNA samples were collected earlier this month in Swakopmund, and the results are expected next month.Wendinus Hausiku (72), the father of the missing boy, recalled the devastating aftermath of their child’s disappearance. “After our son went missing, we left Mile 20 and moved to Windhoek in 2011. We’ve been here in Ndama since 2013,” he said, still visibly emotional.His wife, Elizabeth Filinga (54), said she’s cautiously hopeful. “There’s a strong physical resemblance. I believe it could be him, but we are preparing for any outcome.”The boy’s twin sister, Anastasia Mbunze Hausiku, who turns 20 on 26 April, says the DNA results would be the best birthday gift. “When I met him, something inside me felt like the missing puzzle was finally complete. I’ve been grieving and praying for years,” she said. “Whether he’s my brother or not, I will still love him – he’s been looking for his family, just like we’ve been looking for him.”Once a family of seven, the Hausikus are now six – still clinging to hope that their family may one day be whole again.

Hausiku family awaits DNA results amid more and more questions

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-20

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Hausiku family awaits DNA results amid more and more questions

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-20

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