Niël Terblanché
Jandre Dippenaar became the first and only Namibian in history to be prosecuted and convicted of murder in the aftermath of a fatal motor vehicle collision.
On Friday, in the Swakopmund Regional Court, he was sentenced to spend the next 15 years in prison.
Magistrate Gaynor Paulton imposed the extraordinary sentence after convicting Dippenaar on six counts of murder, one count of reckless and negligent driving, and one count of operating a vehicle without a valid driving license in the Swakopmund Regional Court in June.
Paulton ordered the 15-year custodial sentence, stating that the six counts of murder would be considered a single offence.
The magistrate ordered Dippenaar to pay a fine of N$8 000 for reckless and negligent driving, as well as a fine of N$2 000 for driving a vehicle without a valid driving license.
While expounding on the merits of the prolonged custodial sentence on Friday, Magistrate Paulton explained that fatalities on Namibian roads have increased exponentially and added that society should be less exposed to reckless and negligent drivers because such behaviour has resulted in several unnecessary deaths.
No Namibian driver involved in a fatal motor vehicle collision has ever faced murder charges, instead of the usual culpable homicide charges usually associated with such incidents.
On that fateful day, Dinah Pretorius, Charlene Schoombee and JC Horn, who were all close friends of Dippenaar, lost their lives.
The remaining three deceased persons, Walter Helmut Joschko, Stephanie Dorothea Schemick Joschko, and Alexandra Marlene Joschko, were from Germany and, at the time of the fatal incident, were on a self-drive tour through Namibia.
Antonia Joschko was the only other person who survived the head-on collision between the Ford Ranger her father was driving and the FJ Cruiser that Dippenaar was driving at the time.
In mitigation of sentencing earlier, advocate Albert Strydom argued that, despite Dippenaar’s conviction on six counts of murder, the extraordinary verdict warrants an extraordinary sentence.
Advocate Strydom argued that his client was the first person and only in Namibian history to ever be convicted of murder in the aftermath of a fatal motor vehicle collision and that Magistrate Paulton should consider alternate means of punishment because imprisonment, in this case, would not be in his client’s best interest.
He requested the magistrate consider a suspended sentence, community service, hefty fines, or withdrawing the convicted person’s driving license.
“What purpose would a lengthy prison term serve at this stage? My client, while out on bail for the past ten years, was not involved in any other vehicle accidents, nor did he infringe any of Namibia’s road traffic laws,” he argued.
After Magistrate Paulton meted out sentencing, Antonia Joschko said that she felt justice had been done and that she hoped the convicted person would spend his prison sentence to atone for his deeds.
A very emotional Jan Horn, the father of JC Horn, stated that although justice has been served, he feels that the void left by his son’s death will never be filled. He also mentioned that he will now be able to focus on the future.
“Although the verdict gave us a sense of closure, not one of us left the court building feeling good. There are no winners in this case. Everyone directly involved in this matter, lost,” he said.
The sentencing of Dippenaar marked the end of a decade-long murder trial that set a new legal precedent in Namibian law with regard to the future prosecution of reckless and negligent drivers in Namibian courts.
The last time Namibia had a similar case was when renowned boxer Harry Simon caused an accident in the Erongo region, shaking the road safety sector.
It cost the taxpayers over N$31 million. This led to the amendment of the road safety laws to place a ceiling on the amount one can claim from the Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) fund.
According to road safety activist Felix Tjozongoro, there is no difference between a person who drives recklessly and kills five people and a person who takes a gun and shoots five people.
“Let us not be lenient with a driver that takes the life of someone else with a killing machine called a vehicle,” he said.
Last week, it appears that the courts heeded this call when they sentenced Dipenaar to 15 years for murder stemming from a road accident.
Tjozongoro welcomes this judgement, saying it took the courts more than 10 years to heed his call.
“With this judgement, drivers will now think twice before they get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle and potentially cause the loss of lives. It seems that Namibian courts have now adopted a different approach to road safety as the number of people dying on our roads is on the increase,” said Tjozongoro.
