Zorena Jantze
A STATE witness has come forth with an eerie account of spotting the car of murdered NamPower engineer, Benjamin Silombela, detailing how she saw the murder accused, Muningandu Kaapama (28), allegedly driving Silombela’s car in a neighbourhood in Okahandja, hours before the car was discovered by police, abandoned in a bushy area in the small town.
Kaapama (28) and his girlfriend, Jorene Bezuidenhout (29), face charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, and obstructing the course of justice or an attempt thereof for the murder of Silombela, who was found tied up, gagged, and covered with a blanket at his home in Eros in May 2022.
Hambeleleni Nyeemwatya, the state witness and a friend of the deceased, said that she had seen Kaapama on 24 May 2022 in the early morning making a U-turn with the silver Mercedes with a personalised number plate, “GB NA”, which she immediately recognised as that of the late Silombela.
“It was a Tuesday, I was leaving my bedroom, and I saw my burglar bars were opened. This was in Okahandja in Smartiees, extension 9. It was in the morning around 7 AM. I then went to lock the main gate of the yard and upon that I saw Benjamin’s car making a u-turn at the corner of my yard. After making the u-turn the car faced the direction it had come from. I moved to the corner of my yard as I tried to establish why he (Benjamin) was not coming to my house…. I shouted his name, “Benji,” the driver looked out to see who was calling. He peeked out of the window and looked back into the street,” Nyeemwatya said, pointing to Kaapama sitting in the dock as the man who had been driving her deceased friend’s car that morning.
She added that the driver drove off after receiving directions from two people passing by in the street.
Nyeemwatya said that after this, she had gone back inside and tried to call the deceased Silombela to ask why someone else had been driving his car on a weekday, as he would need it to drive to work.
“I only had data so I used Whatsapp, l but the phone did not ring. This indicated that the deceased was not online. A short while later, quarter past seven, my driver, and the person I carpool with arrived. As we were driving, I described to them what had happened…. I asked the woman who was in the car to call Benjamin to ask what was going on as she had credit. I dialled but his mobile phone was off. When I got to work I called his office, I was put through via switchboard, but it was off,” Nyeemwatya said, adding that thereafter, she had called Silombela’s colleague at NamPower, one Aune, who had said that Silombela had not come into work that day and that she had last seen him the previous day.
She added that she had also called the deceased’s brother to ask about the whereabouts of Silombela, and that thereafter, she and Aune, Silombela’s colleague, had driven to the deceased’s house in Eros, in an attempt to break in and ascertain his whereabouts. They were accompanied by the deceased’s brother as well.
ON TRIAL: The murder accused in court. In corner, the late Benjamin Silombela.
