Eba Kandovazu
SIMASIKU Simataa, the man who has been fighting tooth and nail to get bail after he handed himself over to the police for shooting his boss in Windhoek’s city center a few months ago, was this morning denied bail by Magistrate Vannessa Stanley.
Simataa, 33, made headlines in January after he barged into the offices of Global Fund where he was employed as a Monitoring and Evaluation officer and shot to death his boss, Sarah Mwilima, 52. He subsequently shot and injured another colleague of his, Ester Nepolo.
He recently lodged a formal bail application with his lawyer, Henry Shimutwikeni. An online petition with close to 3,000 signatures opposed the granting of bail. The state fears he will interfere with state witnesses, as some of them were his colleagues.
“People are only afraid of me because they do not know my story. The stories they heard about me are biased and I believe that if people heard my story, the numbers on the petition would not be the same,” Simataa said in response to the petition.
He last week opted to remain silent on the events leading up to the day in question.
“I will remain silent until the trial begins,” is all he was prepared to say.
Investigations into the matter have in the meantime been completed and the docket was sent to the Office of the Prosecutor General for a decision on whether or not he will be tried in the High court. The decision will be made public in July.
