Iuze Mukube
Prince Pienaar, who was convicted and subsequently sentenced in the Outjo Magistrate’s Court in 2022 on a count of stock theft, has been successful in appealing his conviction in the Windhoek High Court.
Pienaar, who was expected to begin serving his three-year sentence last week after completing a separate five-year sentence, was released after his appeal was upheld on 16 October 2026.
Appeal court judges Eileen Rakow and Kandiwapa Nembia made the ruling last Friday.
Pienaar and a co-accused, Petrus Simon Ganeb, were sentenced to three years direct imprisonment on a charge of stock theft on 13 April 2022.
The allegations were that on 7 July 2020, the two, at a farm in Outjo, stole one cattle valued at N$10 000.
Prior to his appeal against the conviction, his co-accused, Ganeb, succeeded in appealing against both his conviction and sentence.
In his grounds of appeal, Pienaar submitted that the lower court erred on relying on uncorroborated single
accomplice witness and accepting that the second state witness, who is an accomplice witness was a credible witness.
He submitted that the court erred in convicting him without a single document proving that the complainant was the owner of the slaughtered cow.
He added that it erred in finding that he was at the crime scene without any proof supporting such finding.
He argued also that the court erred in accepting that the State proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt despite the totality of the evidence pointing to the contrary. The court relied on the mere say so that the cow belonged to the complainant, with no mention of the cow’s breed, colour, ear tag number and a registered livestock brand number.
The complainant testified that the cow was cream in colour, while the accomplice witness stated it was yellowish.
“We submit that cream and yellowish are two distinct colours to the extent that when two witnesses attribute the said colours to the same, it can safely be said that reference is made to two different cows.”
He submitted that if reference is made to the same cow, then the State failed to prove the identity of the cow and then also failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, as the identity of a cow is material in stock theft matters.
“The totality of the evidence shows that the State failed to corroborate its evidence despite having the opportunity to do so.”
A witness testified that Pienaar was at the crime scene, while Pienaar testified that he was in Khorixas at the time, where he was picked up and arrested.
This alibi was not gainsaid by the state, he contended.
“Given the totality of the evidence before court, and appellant’s unshaken evidence that he was in Khorixas on the day of the incident, the court should have given the appellathe benefit of the doubt and accepted his version to be reasonably possibly true. Finding otherwise is a serious misdirection by the trial court which must not be allowed to stand,” he submitted.
Judge Rakow found that the facts of the case in this matter were similar to those of Ganeb, who was successful in his appeal.
Hence, the judge supposedly found no reason to come to a different conclusion regarding the interpretation of the applicable principles in relation to the application of section 204 of the CPA in relation to an accomplice witness.
Ganeb, and similarly Pienaar, had contended that the court a quo erred by relying on the evidence of an uncorroborated single witness (accomplice) to find the appellant guilty of the charge, without applying relevant legal principles.
“Lastly, we would like to specifically express our disapproval of the quality of the prosecution in this matter. Clearly, the prosecutor did not in any way strive to put a properly investigated case before the court.”
There were a number of additional witnesses who could possibly have been called to support the version of the single witness, which was never called without any reason for such a decision provided, said Rakow.
She then upheld the appeal, with the conviction and sentence imposed both set aside.
Pienaar was represented by Gabriel Mwilima of Brockerhoff and Associates Incorporated.
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