Trial begins in Namibia of Motswana student�s murder accused

Tefo Pheage | Wednesday September 7, 2016 15:29

 

The deceased was studying theology in Namibia. According to the state, Motlamme was stabbed to death 25 times at the Paulinium Theological College tenement buildings in Windhoek in 2014.

Dausab has denied guilt on a charge of murder but admitted that carrying out the stabbing that ended his girlfriend’s life under the influence of a temporary mental condition in which he could not be held accountable.

In a written plea explanation signed by Dausab, which Mmegi is in possession of, Dausab stated that he knew Motlamme since 2010, and had been in a romantic relationship with her from 2011 up to the time of her death.

He said he was with the deceased in her flat on February 22, 2014 where they were involved in a quarrel which ended up in a fight and ultimately resulted in the stabbings. “During the fight at the critical moment, I totally lost self-control for a certain period of time because of anger, stress, fear, tension, emotional storm and a total personality disintegration,” he said in the papers.

Dausab said he could not completely remember what transpired during the moments when the actual stabbing took place because everything suddenly became dark and confusing around him.

“When I came to my senses at a later stage, I realised that I must have stabbed the deceased. I was still in shock and confused for some time after the incident, and cannot remember the events as they unfolded,” he says.

According to him, at the time of the commission of the offence, he was unable to direct his conduct or actions in accordance with any insight into right or wrong because of a temporary emotional disturbance occasioned by emotional stress and emotional breakdown.

He continued that he was raising a defence of “non-pathological criminal incapacity” on the grounds that he could not be held accountable for his actions at the time of the fatal stabbing. The case continues.