Erastus Nekuta agreed to be interviewed about his niece, Selma Shaimemanya, who was shot and killed by her abusive husband, Lazarus Shaduka, on July 13, 2008.  Erastus described Selma as “…always available to help where help was needed.”  He also said that she was hard-working and forward-looking, and that she was “trying to be somebody in life.”  She was well-educated: she attended university at the Polytechnic in Windhoek and then went to the UK to get her master’s degree.  When she came back to Namibia, she began working for the Ministry of Defense.  Soon after her return she married Shaduka.

Shaduka started abusing her immediately after the marriage and the situation deteriorated quickly.  He often threatened to kill her. Despite intervention by various family members, the abuse did not stop.  At one point, after he had threatened her with his gun, she went to the police to get a protection order.  However, she was pressured to withdraw her application by Shaduka’s family, and so she did not go through with the order.  The police confiscated his gun when she took out the order but he was able to retrieve it immediately after the case was withdrawn.  Soon after that, just one year after the wedding, he killed her with it, shooting her in the presence of their 8-month-old daughter.  Selma was just 33.  In this video Erastus describes her murder and what happened immediately afterward.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SKFcp6AtiA

Shaduka is still waiting for trial.