My Attitude Towards Former SWATF/Koevoet Members

ON THE weekend of 1-2 November 2014, I went to witness the peaceful march for about 38km by members of the Namibia War Veterans Trust (Namvet) from Oshakati to Okankete village near Ondangwa.

Namvet is a civic organisation of former members of the South West Africa Territorial Force (SWATF) and Koevoet. They were marching to express their feelings that they were being discriminated against by the government in an independent Namibia. My association with these people was viewed by some Namibians as a taboo and an abominable act.

I have observed that many Namibians, who participated in the liberation struggle, were involved in something they did not understand. I do not blame them because it was a complex situation. I came to understand it through some hard experiences.

I mentioned to the gathering at Okankete that our struggle for independence took place at the time the world was divided into two mutually hostile camps. This period is known as the Cold War era. Each camp wanted to destroy the other and control the world ideologically, militarily and economically.

The Western bloc countries, under the leadership of the United States, wanted to have the world under their sphere of influence, which they called democratic governance and free market economy or capitalism. Apartheid South Africa was part of the Western bloc of countries. The Eastern bloc of countries, under the leadership of the Soviet Union and China, also wanted to have the world under their sphere of influence, which they called communist rule.

No country loves another country and no government gets involved in the struggle of other people for nothing. Each country’s actions are driven by its national interests. Southern Africa, including Namibia, is very rich in minerals and other natural resources. Therefore, each bloc wanted to have Southern Africa under its influence in order to gain access to these resources.

Swapo and its military wing, the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia [Plan], found themselves being supported militarily by the eastern bloc and thus idolised communism. On the other hand, being part of the apartheid South African army, SWATF and Koevoet members fought their kith and kin without question on the side of the western bloc.

Namibians in one bloc were thus heavily indoctrinated to hate fellow Namibians in the opposing bloc. Those who were on the side of the eastern bloc called fellow Namibians on the other side all sorts of names such as imperialist puppets, imperialist stooges, traitors and so forth.

Namibians who were on the side of the Western bloc called fellow Namibians on the other side as communist agents, terrorists and so forth. Innocent Namibians suffered in the process.

Namibia became independent in 1990 under a democratic Constitution that was put together long before independence by the western/capitalist countries. However, our minds are still stuck in the Cold War way of thinking. That is why we continue being a divided nation.

We are so divided that often we do not even listen to fellow Namibians. We first look on which side they were during the Cold War. Our division has opened doors for the crooks from both sides to continue cheating us and plundering our resources.

To reverse the current trend, we need to free our minds from the Cold War mentality. As a nation, our strength and success lies in our unity and cohesiveness. The time is now for us to sit around one table and plan how to move our country forward for the benefit of the majority of Namibians.

I have long made a pledge to accept, treat and respect all Namibians in the same way. My own late brother was a Swapo security agent in exile.

I knew what he had done to innocent Namibians at Lubango in Angola, but I did not disown him. I know what many others had done in exile, including my former schoolmate, the late Andrew Bongi Intamba. I do not reject them because I have to differentiate between the Cold War era and today.

I cherish the ideal of Namibia adopting a policy of national reconciliation. We need to develop it into a genuine policy to guide our interactions towards one another. When such a policy is finally documented and adopted, it will allow former Plan and SWATF/Koevoet members to accept and respect one another as veterans on both sides of the Cold War.

It will allow former Robben Island prisoners, former Kai /Ganaxas detainees as well as former Mboroma detainees and Lubango dungeon survivors to walk hand-in-hand as fellow Namibians with the same experience of incarceration during the Cold War.

Samson Ndeikwila

By email