By: Wonder Guchu
A Rundu man says he was beaten and had his head shaved with a knife by some police officers for no reason.
Dastaque Kahango (45) has since opened a case – CR225/05/2021 – of assault against the police officers.
Dep Commissioner Vilho confirmed that Kahango opened a case against the police.
The deputy commissioner also said the officer working on the case was on leave but that he had instructed another officer to look into it.
Kahango says the police officers were travelling in a minibus around the Donkerhoek on 19 May 2021 when they found him standing outside his house around 09h00.
He claims that he was outside to be close to a WIFI connection since he was responding to a WhatsApp message sent his aunt.
Kahango says they officers called him, saying was he not seeing that they had arrived.
“I asked them why they were talking to a citizen like that, and three of them approached him,” he narrates.
According to Kahango, he had shaved his hair on the sides leaving a boller which was tied.
Two of the officers, he says, grabbed his phone while the other one was searching his pockets.
“He found N$30 and a cigarette. When he wanted to take the N$30, I told him that he should not do that,” Kahango says.
All this, he says, was done while the officers were assaulting him.
After searching him and finding nothing, the officers told Kahango to take them to his house for a search.
When they got to the house, six men and one woman went in with him.
“While searching, they saw my prison card that showed that I was once arrested for dealing. They then dragged me with them to Kavango Motel.
“Once there, they ordered me to do some press ups but I told them I had a problematic arm,” he says, adding that they insisted he should lie on his tummy and do the press ups.
He also claims that one of the officers then shaved off his boller using a knife.
Kahango claims that they administered 12 strokes with a baton stick.
At about 16h00, they gave him a rake and a spade to clean up the motel’s grounds before they left, he says.
When he was done cleaning, Kahango went to the hospital but was told to open a case first with the police.
According to him, when he got to the Rundu Police Station and said he wanted to open a case against the police, he was sent from one officer to the next.
He, however, managed to open a case and was admitted in hospital.
While he was in hospital, Kahango said he was called by a police officer who told him that he was dealing with his case.
“I went to the station and the officer said we should discuss the matter in an office. Once there, he changed the story and said that there was a case of dealing in cannabis against me. I was then arrested and detained on 24 May 2021,” he says.
Kahango appeared in court on 26 May 2021 and was granted N$1 000 bail, which he could not raise.
However, he managed to pay the money on the 27th of May 2021 and was released.
He will return to court on 1 December 2021.
