Plan combatants distance themself from planned Koevoet march

THE Former Plan Combatants Association (FPCA) within Swapo have distanced themselves from plans by ex-Koevoet and ex-SWATF members to march to State House.

This comes after a splinter Plan group, led by Phillipus Shipulwa, gathered last Friday, accompanied by ex-Koevoet and ex-SWATF members who threatened to hold a peaceful demonstration if their pleas were not responded to.

At the meeting, the members demanded that State House return part of the N$36 million they claim was given to them by the apartheid government.

FPCA spokesperson Charles Mubita in a media statement said “plan fighters will never go to bed with ex-Koevoet and ex-SWATF members”.

“We wish to categorically state that Plan combatants under the stewardship of the FPCA shall never, not now and not in this lifetime, work together with elements of the oppressive machinery responsible for the merciless massacre.

Mubita said the splinter group of Plan combatants intend to work with former notorious bloodthirsty killers under the umbrella of ex-Koevoet and ex-SWATF.

Mubita said under the ethos of national reconciliation, FPCA have no inclination of embracing the atrocious crimes committed against the Namibian people by apartheid South Africa and its quislings.

“We also wish to state that Fillipus Shipulwa is not a member of FPCA and to the best of our knowledge, he was never a Plan combatant.

“Not everyone who was in exile was a Plan combatant, and most definitely not former refugees,” said Mubita.

He said a clear distinction should be made between refugees and those who served under Swapo in various categories.

“We are aware of the panic that is visiting some opposition parties who fear losing members in their ranks who were in the fold of Plan during the liberation struggle,” he said.

The FPCA called upon all former Plan combatants who find themselves trapped in the counter-revolutionary armpits of opposition parties to join their ranks.