Attempted Murder Suspect Asks Bail

Werner Menges

15 June 2011

An incident in which a young mother suffered life-threatening knife wounds in Windhoek three months ago was an accident, the man charged with attempted murder over the event claimed in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura yesterday.

When he goes on trial on the attempted murder charge he is now facing, he will be pleading not guilty, Martin Swaniso Lupalezwi told Magistrate Elina Nandago on the first day of a hearing on an application by him to be released on bail.

Lupalezwi (31) has been in Police custody since being arrested on March 2, which was the day that the mother of one of his two children, Lillian Thembisa Tawo, had to be rushed to hospital with knife wounds which nearly claimed her life.

The prosecution is alleging that Lupalezwi attacked Tawo with a knife, stabbing her with the weapon and also trying to cut her throat, at his home on Dahlia Street in Khomasdal.

Tawo ended up being treated in the intensive care unit of Windhoek Central Hospital, but has since recovered from her wounds to such an extent that she was able to be present at the court yesterday.

Lupalezwi told the magistrate he was employed with a company making kitchen units in Windhoek, while he also had his own business making built-in cupboards at the time of his arrest.

He and Tawo have a daughter, born in August last year, and he also has a son with another woman, Lupalezwi said.

He told the court he and Tawo had been involved in a relationship for about three years. While their relationship was going on, he was also involved with another woman, who he was staying with.

Lupalezwi said his relationship with Tawo was not going well. Around April 2008, he claimed, she tried to kill herself by drinking tablets. On March 31 2009, she stabbed him in his left upper arm with a broken bottle, and although he had to have the wound stitched up in hospital, he did not lay a charge against her, he said.

That stabbing, he said, was because of a demand of Tawo that he had to leave his other girlfriend.

On March 2, he claimed, he found Tawo armed with a knife when he came out of the bathroom at his home. He said she had cuts to her left shoulder and blood on her dress, and that she then tried to stab him.

He tried to take the knife away from her, he claimed: “We were struggling for the knife, and it accidentally cut her.”

Tawo was cut on her neck, and when she fell he managed to take the knife from her, he said.

The bail application is scheduled to continue today.

Lupalezwi is being represented by Orben Sibeya. Cliff Lutibezi is representing the State.

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