Chinese shop owner denies urine-throwing claims
Teary-eyed Wen Longzhume, a Chinese shop owner accused of throwing urine on a local trader during a heated altercation last Thursday at Okuryangava, said the allegations against her are untrue.
She only admitted guilt and paid a fine because she did not understand the conversation with the police as there was no translator, she said.
Wen became talk of town after she was detained last week for allegedly throwing pee on Helena Sheleka during a confrontation, and paid an admission of guilt fine of N$500 at the Wanaheda police station before being released at 17:00 the same day.
Her release, widely reported in mainstream and social media, angered the public.
Police, under intense pressure and criticism from the public, then went to Wen’s house at 23:00 and rearrested her, saying her matter was ‘not resolved’.
She spent the night in police custody and was taken to an office at the court the next morning where she paid another fine – this time N$1 000.
She also paid the trader N$800, allegedly because it was deemed that Sheleka lost out on business that day because of hours of squabbling. Wen did not appear in court.
In good faith
“She sells carrots and I paid the N$800 in good faith and so that everything can return to normal. I didn’t throw urine on her and all traders here are my witnesses,” the shop owner told Namibian Sun yesterday through a translator.
Narrating the genesis of the ordeal, she said one of Sheleka’s employees set up her stall in front of Wen’s rented shop early last week.
“I told her that she cannot sell in front of my shop because she is preventing traffic of customers into my shop, and that I use that space to roll out textiles that I sell. We use that space to cut the textiles for customers.
“On Thursday morning, the lady returned again and set up her stall in front of my shop. I told her to move and she refused. She then called her boss, a woman, who came and was trying to attack me physically and shouting expletives,” she said.
The shop’s security guard, Lazarus Moses, told Namibian Sun: “She was trying to attack Wen and shouting ‘f*** you’ repeatedly.”
“She [Sheleka] kept saying she is Namibian and that the Chinese must go back to their country. I kept trying to block her from attacking Wen. I was there from the beginning to the end of the scuffle and at no point did I see urine being poured on anyone,” he said.
The shop’s CCTV camera footage shows Moses frantically preventing Sheleka from attacking Wen.
Lost in translation
Wen and her husband said members of the police were in the vicinity and were alerted to the heated squabble, and immediately arrived at the scene.
“I was taken to the station at 11:00 and I was released at 17:00 after I paid an admission of guilt fine of N$500. “Everything is written in English and there was no translator so I did not understand that I was admitting to having poured urine on this woman, because I did not.
“Even when I paid the second fine of N$1 000 the next day at a court office, there was no translator for me.”
Zimbabwean trader Shepherd Muzondo, whose shop is next to Wen’s, witnessed the drama unfold and said: “The woman [Sheleka] kept saying ‘me, I am Namibian’ while shouting ‘f*** you’ expletives. I was here and there was no urine thrown at anyone.
“She said ‘if I can’t sell here, you won’t sell here either’. The whole thing was a territorial fight, not a urine one,” he recounted.
“She then called some activists to the shop and they were singing political songs.”
Unfair treatment
Judy Zhou, a representative of the Chinese business community in Namibia, said: “We as owners of legitimate business in Namibia feel unfairly treated and actually insulted by these baseless claims of urine-throwing. These people are conducting legal business and have valid work permits”.
Sheleka yesterday stood by her version of events, saying it is incomprehensible that she would make up a story of this magnitude.
“Black people typically do not defend each other, that’s why those traders are claiming that no urine was used. We, blacks, always seem to be scared of pale-skinned people.
“This woman has a history of mistreating me and on Thursday she poured a liquid on me with a bucket and I immediately started smelling like urine. That’s when I decided that enough was enough,” she said.
She only admitted guilt and paid a fine because she did not understand the conversation with the police as there was no translator, she said.
Wen became talk of town after she was detained last week for allegedly throwing pee on Helena Sheleka during a confrontation, and paid an admission of guilt fine of N$500 at the Wanaheda police station before being released at 17:00 the same day.
Her release, widely reported in mainstream and social media, angered the public.
Police, under intense pressure and criticism from the public, then went to Wen’s house at 23:00 and rearrested her, saying her matter was ‘not resolved’.
She spent the night in police custody and was taken to an office at the court the next morning where she paid another fine – this time N$1 000.
She also paid the trader N$800, allegedly because it was deemed that Sheleka lost out on business that day because of hours of squabbling. Wen did not appear in court.
In good faith
“She sells carrots and I paid the N$800 in good faith and so that everything can return to normal. I didn’t throw urine on her and all traders here are my witnesses,” the shop owner told Namibian Sun yesterday through a translator.
Narrating the genesis of the ordeal, she said one of Sheleka’s employees set up her stall in front of Wen’s rented shop early last week.
“I told her that she cannot sell in front of my shop because she is preventing traffic of customers into my shop, and that I use that space to roll out textiles that I sell. We use that space to cut the textiles for customers.
“On Thursday morning, the lady returned again and set up her stall in front of my shop. I told her to move and she refused. She then called her boss, a woman, who came and was trying to attack me physically and shouting expletives,” she said.
The shop’s security guard, Lazarus Moses, told Namibian Sun: “She was trying to attack Wen and shouting ‘f*** you’ repeatedly.”
“She [Sheleka] kept saying she is Namibian and that the Chinese must go back to their country. I kept trying to block her from attacking Wen. I was there from the beginning to the end of the scuffle and at no point did I see urine being poured on anyone,” he said.
The shop’s CCTV camera footage shows Moses frantically preventing Sheleka from attacking Wen.
Lost in translation
Wen and her husband said members of the police were in the vicinity and were alerted to the heated squabble, and immediately arrived at the scene.
“I was taken to the station at 11:00 and I was released at 17:00 after I paid an admission of guilt fine of N$500. “Everything is written in English and there was no translator so I did not understand that I was admitting to having poured urine on this woman, because I did not.
“Even when I paid the second fine of N$1 000 the next day at a court office, there was no translator for me.”
Zimbabwean trader Shepherd Muzondo, whose shop is next to Wen’s, witnessed the drama unfold and said: “The woman [Sheleka] kept saying ‘me, I am Namibian’ while shouting ‘f*** you’ expletives. I was here and there was no urine thrown at anyone.
“She said ‘if I can’t sell here, you won’t sell here either’. The whole thing was a territorial fight, not a urine one,” he recounted.
“She then called some activists to the shop and they were singing political songs.”
Unfair treatment
Judy Zhou, a representative of the Chinese business community in Namibia, said: “We as owners of legitimate business in Namibia feel unfairly treated and actually insulted by these baseless claims of urine-throwing. These people are conducting legal business and have valid work permits”.
Sheleka yesterday stood by her version of events, saying it is incomprehensible that she would make up a story of this magnitude.
“Black people typically do not defend each other, that’s why those traders are claiming that no urine was used. We, blacks, always seem to be scared of pale-skinned people.
“This woman has a history of mistreating me and on Thursday she poured a liquid on me with a bucket and I immediately started smelling like urine. That’s when I decided that enough was enough,” she said.
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