{"id":57821,"date":"2023-11-06T16:28:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T16:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft"},"modified":"2023-11-06T16:36:05","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T16:36:05","slug":"priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft","title":{"rendered":"Priest not guilty of water pump theft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>Catholic priest Wilbard Haingura and co-accused Maria Lingue were last week found not guilty by the Rundu Magistrate\u2019s Court for the possession of a stolen solar water pump for a borehole of the Nyangana Parish in Kavango East.<\/p>\n

The court also ordered their bail money of N$3 000 each to be refunded.<\/p>\n

The duo was arrested in January, following a sting operation in which they allegedly attempted to sell the pump to undercover cops, who pretended to be looking for a second-hand solar water pump amidst high water pump theft cases.<\/p>\n

Rundu magistrate Selma Shiiga on Monday found them not guilty of the alleged crime after it was established in court that the pump was found with a third person, whom the police were not at liberty to disclose.<\/p>\n

Rrepresented by a Rundu-based lawyer Bernhard Tjatjara, the two pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial.<\/p>\n

Tjatjara argued that the State dismally failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, as it was not proven that the pump was found with the accused persons.<\/p>\n

\u201cPossession, as an ingredient for the offence, was not proven and the State did not pass the threshold of proof beyond reasonable doubt,\u2019\u2019 he argued.<\/p>\n

He further argued that there was no shred of evidence that the two accused persons were indeed in possession of the said pump when it was found by the police after the police officer testified that the pump was found with a third person.<\/p>\n

The State called two witnesses and closed its case.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Michael Munika conceded that a statement from the third person from whom the pump was found was not taken by the police, nor did he also know who that third person was.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Shiiga agreed with the defence submissions and found the accused not guilty.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. Catholic priest Wilbard Haingura and co-accused Maria Lingue were last week found not guilty by the Rundu Magistrate\u2019s Court for the possession of a stolen solar water pump for a borehole of the Nyangana Parish in Kavango East. The court also ordered their bail money of N$3 000 each to be refunded. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":57820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-57821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nPriest not guilty of water pump theft - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Catholic priest Wilbard Haingura and co-accused Maria Lingue were last week found not guilty by the Rundu Magistrate\u2019s C ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Priest not guilty of water pump theft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Catholic priest Wilbard Haingura and co-accused Maria Lingue were last week found not guilty by the Rundu Magistrate\u2019s C ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-06T16:28:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-06T16:36:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/11\/sm_1699275874.298426.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"498\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Priest not guilty of water pump theft\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-06T16:28:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-06T16:36:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft\"},\"wordCount\":318,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/11\/sm_1699275874.298426.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft\",\"name\":\"Priest not guilty of water pump theft - Namibia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/11\/sm_1699275874.298426.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-06T16:28:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-06T16:36:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Catholic priest Wilbard Haingura and co-accused Maria Lingue were last week found not guilty by the Rundu Magistrate\u2019s C ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/11\/sm_1699275874.298426.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/11\/sm_1699275874.298426.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":498,\"caption\":\"Priest not guilty of water pump theft\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Priest not guilty of water pump theft\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\",\"name\":\"Namibia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Priest not guilty of water pump theft - Namibia","description":"Catholic priest Wilbard Haingura and co-accused Maria Lingue were last week found not guilty by the Rundu Magistrate\u2019s C ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Priest not guilty of water pump theft","og_description":"Catholic priest Wilbard Haingura and co-accused Maria Lingue were last week found not guilty by the Rundu Magistrate\u2019s C ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft","og_site_name":"Namibia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2023-11-06T16:28:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-06T16:36:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":498,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/11\/sm_1699275874.298426.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Priest not guilty of water pump theft","datePublished":"2023-11-06T16:28:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-06T16:36:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft"},"wordCount":318,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/11\/sm_1699275874.298426.jpg","keywords":["africa press","Africa Press-Namibia","namibia"],"articleSection":["all news","community"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft","name":"Priest not guilty of water pump theft - Namibia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/11\/sm_1699275874.298426.jpg","datePublished":"2023-11-06T16:28:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-06T16:36:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Catholic priest Wilbard Haingura and co-accused Maria Lingue were last week found not guilty by the Rundu Magistrate\u2019s C ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/11\/sm_1699275874.298426.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/11\/sm_1699275874.298426.jpg","width":720,"height":498,"caption":"Priest not guilty of water pump theft"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/priest-not-guilty-of-water-pump-theft#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Priest not guilty of water pump theft"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/","name":"Namibia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}