Murder accused to reapply for bail

A Windhoek resident, who is currently on trial for stabbing to death his girlfriend and mother of his child in Havana during May 2018, is reapplying for bail after his initial bail application was denied.

Gustav Pienaar said he is bringing forth a formal bail application based on new facts for the court to reconsider releasing him on bail.

However, his bail application case could not proceed as scheduled in the High Court on Friday, as it was postponed to 19 July 2021.

Pienaar, who seemed eager for the proceedings to start, is conducting his own defence after several lawyers withdrew from his case for unrealistic instructions and the Directorate of Legal Aid is unable to find a lawyer willing to defend him.

His trial, which is in its final stages, is scheduled to return to court on 17 May for submissions before the court can pass a verdict.

The prosecution is accusing him of killing his girlfriend and mother of his then two-year-old son by stabbing her once in the chest with a 22cm-blade knife in Havana, Windhoek.

Pienaar is charged with one count of murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act for stabbing Magde Christina Cloete to death; one count of assault by threat for threatening to kill Hilaria Amukoto and one count of defeating or obstructing or attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice for hiding or destroying the knife used to kill the victim.

He pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial and placed the blame for the stabbing on an eyewitness, Dina Smith.

According to Pienaar, he found Cloete at a shebeen near his house in Havana, where she was consuming a traditional fermented beverage, tombo.

He further narrated that when he came there, the patrons asked him to remove Cloete, as she was unruly. Pienaar said he then spoke to Cloete in a calm voice and asked her to go with him, which she did.

He went on to say that he had a knife with him, which he was trying to sell in his one hand, and his baby boy in the other arm.

As they were walking, Smith approached them with a stone in her hand and allegedly started attacking him, and the victim came between them.

Pienaar said Cloete was stabbed by Smith, who managed to grab the knife from him.

According to Pienaar, when Cloete was stabbed in her shoulder, he left the scene to seek help but had an epileptic fit and woke up 20 days later in hospital.

However, during her cross examination by the State as its first witness, Smith said she met Pienaar and Cloete at a bus stop on her way home, where Pienaar was trying to sell a knife to some woman there.

Cloete then called her and said: “Oh Dina, it is good that you came; Pienaar said he will kill me”. She said Pienaar then stabbed Cloete in the chest, grabbed the child and ran away.

Pienaar is currently held at the Windhoek Correctional Facility after he was denied bail the first time.