Iuze Mukube

A 22-year sentence has been handed down to Jacobus Seun Gawaseb, who was accused of assaulting and murdering his seven-month-pregnant wife with an iron knobkerrie.

The sentence was handed down yesterday by Judge Dinah Usiku at the Windhoek Prison Court.

Gawaseb (28) was convicted of two counts, including murder with direct intent and malicious damage to property, on 29 June 2026 in relation to the death of Fransiska Naobes.

The charges were in relation to the allegation that on 2 March 2023 in Gobabis, Gawaseb, acting on suspicion that Naobes was cheating on him, assaulted her by hitting her with stones and an iron knobkerrie and also jumping on her body.

At the time of the assault, Naobes was heavily pregnant with the couple’s second child. The State alleged that the two had a seven-year-old daughter and resided as man and wife.

It further alleged that Gawaseb pursued Naobes to the house where she fled to seek help and continued to assault her. Naobes died due to blunt force trauma and a head injury at a local hospital in Windhoek on 19 April 2023.

Gawaseb pleaded guilty to the charges and testified that he felt sorry for what he had done and sought for his father to apologise on his behalf to the deceased’s family.

He further testified that he has still not come to terms with what he had done. He did not dispute that he was convicted of serious offences and that at the time of her death, Naobes was at an advanced stage of her pregnancy.

He did not deny that they were together romantically and that he ought to have been the deceased’s protector and not a perpetrator of violence against her. He explained that the incident was caused by a rumour he was told, that the deceased’s pregnancy was not his but for someone else.

He took full responsibility for his actions. The judge found that the courts cannot turn a blind eye at such an outrage, murders committed in the domestic setting, as that would risk encouraging breakdown of law and order and communities taking the law into their own hands.

Usiku noted that the accused showed real remorse for his conduct and that he spent a considerable time in custody awaiting the finalisation of the case.

However, she held that “murder per se is a serious crime and the offence was committed in the most brutal manner when regard is had to the post-mortem examination report compiled by the doctor.”

She also found that “had the deceased not died as a result of the injuries caused by the accused, her child who was born prematurely might have survived.”

The child died because of lack of milk as she could not be breastfed by the mother who died, she added.

She held that the accused and deceased were in a domestic setting, which in itself is an aggravating factor.

She then sentenced Gawaseb to 22 years imprisonment for murder with direct intent and six months for the charge of malicious damage to property, which was ordered to be served concurrently with the murder charge.

The State was represented by Sackey Mupuma and the accused by Mellisa Windisch. 

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