Dippenaar to plead today

Jandré Dippenaar, 32, is expected to plead and provide the court with the plea explanation today as his murder and fraud trial begins following a gruesome car accident on 29 December 2014. The trial was set to start yesterday but, Hezekiel Ipinge, the state prosecutor, requested a postponement from the court to prepare for the questioning of his witnesses. This follows after Dippenaar's counsel, Advocate Louis Botes handed over Dippenaar's plea and plea explanation to the state. “I need time to go through the plea explanation and in light of the new information, I also need to consult with my witnesses again. The defendant's plea will be read into the record tomorrow,” Ipinge told the court. Magistrate Gaynor Poulton granted the state the extra day and ordered that Dippenaar's bail be extended to today. Advocate Botes said he is ready to proceed and that he has also received the list of state witnesses from Ipinge. During May last year, the trial was postponed to yesterday. The defence had requested the lengthy postponement after having received the voluminous accident report of more than 200 pages only at the end of April last year. Dippenaar and German national Antonia Klara Joschko,17, who was holidaying with her parents, were the only survivors of the crash which took place between Henties Bay and Swakopmund. Her parents, Walter Helmut, 48, and Stephanie Dorothea Schemick, 49, and her 19-year-old sister Alexandra Marlene died instantly in the Ford Ranger in which they were travelling. Witnesses to the crash had pulled Joschko from the wreckage. In the Toyota FJ Cruiser Gobabis resident Dina Pretorius, 30, also the owner of the vehicle, Charlene Schoombe, 24, and JC Horn, 27, both from Windhoek, also perished. Dippenaar was also pulled from the burning wreckage by witnesses to the crash. The Joschko family was returning from the Skeleton Coast while Dippenaar and his friends were driving to Henties Bay. A well-known in rally circles in Namibia, he is alleged to have been driving. In total Dippenaar faces not only the six charges of murder, but also a charge of fraud and driving without a valid driver's licence. Joschko and the family of those who died in FJ Cruiser were in court yesterday.JESSICA BOTES

Dippenaar to plead today

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-15

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Dippenaar to plead today

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-15

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