Staff Reporter
PAULUS Parata, a 26-year-old resident of Okahandja Park, testified in the ongoing trial of Mecthilde Karomo (33), who stands accused of murdering her ex-boyfriend Leonard Kadubuli and his new lover, Anastasia Matende.
During testimony last week, Karomo (33), who faces two counts of murder and one count of arson and its alternative, malicious damage to property, denied all guilt, stating that the fire which took the lives of her ex-lover had also affected her shack, as some of her household items also caught fire. The State alleges Karomo intentionally killed her ex-boyfriend and his then-alleged girlfriend by setting Kadubuli’s shack on fire on 26 December 2022.
It is also alleged that the incident occurred due to relationship issues, as on 25 December 2022, Karomo allegedly threatened Kadubuli that she would set his house on fire after an altercation between them.
Later, Karomo allegedly carried out the threat, resulting in the deaths in Windhoek’s Okahandja Park informal settlement.
Karomo has also denied the veracity of claims made in a confession she made after the incident, in which she allegedly admitted to setting the house alight and said she did so with the impression that nobody was inside.
She said that part of the information contained there was given on the instructions of a police officer.
In his testimony before High Court Judge Claudia Claasen, Parata discounted claims that the household items of Karomo had also caught fire, adding that he merely observed smoke in Karomo’s house.
He added that he woke up on 26 December 2022 between the hours of 03:00 and 04:00 AM to screams of someone instructing everybody to exit their shacks as there had been a fire at the house of the late Leonard Kadubuli, whose home he said had been located next to Karomo’s shack.
He added that Karomo’s shack and that of Kadubuli had been plus-minus two meters apart and had been so close that the fire risked spreading to Karomo’s home.
Parata said that to prevent the spread of the fire he had removed some of the zinc from the side of the accused’s home and moved the bed away from the side of the zinc sheets, but that he had not observed any household items being burned as claimed by the defendant.
He added that he had not interacted with the accused and that he merely saw her sitting outside her shack at around 05:00 AM when the fire brigade had arrived.
The matter was postponed to 19 March 2026 for closing arguments.
MURDER ACCUSED: Mecthilde Karomo (33). Photo: Contributed
