Safety and Security Minister Nangolo Mbumba signed a letter two months ago that dashed the last hopes of Jefta Awiseb (40) to seek justice in a case against the police officer who shot his skull to smithereens 19 years ago. The gun shot left him mentally as well as physically challenged ever since.

Awiseb is devastated. The minister’s signature is the last nail in the coffin of a tragedy that started on 8 May 1993 when the then 21 year-old and his relatives were sitting at a gate of a school in Katutura, Windhoek.
The policeman approached them and called Awiseb aside. Allegedly without provocation he grabbed him from behind and put his service pistol to the back of his head. The next moment a shot rang out and left Awiseb unconscious. He would only realize months later what had happened. The bullet blew parts of his skull away and penetrated his brain. He was almost a vegetable.
“I want the public to know that I am suffering and my life was taken from me. I was like a child who had to learn to walk, speak and eat again when I emerged from hospital after months of painful recovery,” Awi-seb recalls his ordeal.Mbumba’s letter dated 2 December 2011, with a reference number WH/054694, which is in Informanté’s possession, states that the Minister shall not waive the otherwise compulsory 12-month period during which a civil charge against the policeman must be filed after such an incident. This is according to the Police Act of 1990. Awiseb was for months in hospital when a certain Detective Sergeant Bohitile filed a case against the accused police officer for attempted murder at the Katutura police station (CR 206/05/1993) in May 1993.
Awiseb was mentally incapacitated to the level of a child’s. Neither did he know of the time limit to institute legal civil action, nor did he have second thoughts when a policeman visited him at his hospital bed shortly after the incident and requested him to sign a document. Awiseb signed, and in June 1994 this very document would lead to the policeman’s acquittal. The case of attempted murder was withdrawn.
However, step by step, Awiseb slowly and determinately pieced his life together again. He however still speaks slowly and shows memory lapses but displays signs of recovery - at least until 2004 when he started to get epileptic fits.
A range of expert tests, which gives documented proof in Informanté’s possession, indicates that his brain injury, inflicted by the police bullet, is the likely cause of his epilepsy. After six years of suffering, relatives and friends convinced him to lay charges against the officer and the Namibian police.
Awiseb’s only chance is a plea to Safety and Security Minister to waive the compulsory twelve-month period and allow for a civil claim against the police officer. But Mbumba rejected his request, even on grounds of his health situation, saying no special circumstances would be allowed.
As Awiseb puts it: “My life was stolen from me. For the man who shot me - life goes on. And the system that was supposed to protect me - failed me.”