Colonel Homateni given heroes funeral

SWAPO veteran of the liberation struggle Nathanael Homateni (85) who died in the Oshakati State Hospital on July 31 was buried at Onandjaba village of Okalongo District in the Omusati Region.

The funeral was attended by a huge crowd of mourners including his wife Selma Homateni, children, grand children, relatives, friends, fellow veterans such as Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, Deputy Ministert of Agricurture and Forestry Peter Ilonga, the adviser to President Kanana Hishoono, Frederick Matongo from the Veterans Affairs Ministry, Namibia Defence Force Generals and Commanders as well as NamPol Commanders.In their messages of condolences praise was showered on Colonel Homateni for being a true unwavering freedom fighter, a veteran of the liberation struggle since he joined Ovambo Peoples Congress (OPC) in 1957 and maintained his membership through its transformation to Ovambo Peoples Organisation (OPO) in 1958 and then later into South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) in 1960. Late Colonel Homateni got his military training at Omugulugwombashe in 1966, where he was trained as a political commissar. He was arrested and detained at Ondangwa for a week in 1966 and then transferred to Windhoek prison and later to another prison in Pretoria, South Africa and then banished to Robben Island where he served for eight years as a political prisoner. After his release in 1973 and Homateni fled to Angola in 1974 and joint PLAN where he was trained at Efitu laNamalambo as a political commissar and deployed to the western front (Ombadja). In 1976 he was summoned by the President of Swapo to Zambia and was put in charge of the Ondjaba Refugee Camp in Angola which served as a transit point for new arrivals from Namibia.Colonel Homateni returned home in 1989 and in 1990 he was working for Nature Conservation for six months after which he joined Okakonghola Security Company (Namibia Protection Services-NPS) until his retirement in 2003.\