Army ‘on alert’ over Koevoet

Malicious propaganda is purportedly being spread within the ranks of the Namibia Defence Force (NDF) that former SWATF/Koevoet soldiers are planning to attack the Luiperdsvallei and Suiderhof army bases in Windhoek in the coming week.
The chairperson of the Namibia War Veterans Trust (Namvet), Jabulani Ndeunyema, yesterday said at a press briefing that he was informed of the “propaganda” and was told that NDF soldiers had been put on high alert and that no leave was granted while the special field force had been instructed to be on standby.
This could, however, not be confirmed with the NDF since all queries were referred to the head of the public relations office, Colonel Monica Sheya, who was travelling yesterday and could not attend to questions sent to her.
The ageing former SWATF/Koevoet soldiers, who have been participating in a sit-in at the Red Flag Commando Hall next to the Herero Mall in Katutura for the last eight months, are planning a week of activism in which they want to petition the “old friends and financiers” of the old apartheid regime in South Africa.


“The former soldiers of SWATF and Koevoet have a genuine and justified reason to petition the governments of the USA, UK, EU, SA and the United Nations,” Ndeunyema wrote to Inspector-General Sebastian Ndeitunga of the Namibian Police informing him of the plans of the ex-soldiers to petition the embassies of these countries.
Ndeunyema wrote in this letter: “The struggle for Namibian independence took place at a time when the world was divided into two ideological camps or blocks. The Western countries under the leadership of the United States of America wanted to have the world under their sphere of influence called democracy and capitalism. Apartheid South Africa was part of the Western bloc countries. The Eastern bloc was under the leadership of the Soviet Union and China that wanted the world under their sphere of influence called communist rule. As a result, as Namibians we found ourselves caught up on both sides of the conflict between the two blocs.”
Namvet said the former SWATF and Koevoet had to counter the installation of a communist administration in Windhoek while protecting the interests of Western countries such as petrol stations, banks and mines.
“We were soldiers who were given instructions, that is all. Today, all we want from the Namibian government is to be recognised as former war veterans, not veterans of the liberation struggle as was alluded to earlier by the secretary-general of the Swapo party, Nangolo Mbumba,” said Ndeunyema.
On this coming Sunday around 14:00 the former SWATF/Koevoet members want to march to the vicinity of Windhoek West and Windhoek North where they plan to overnight before continuing to the embassies and other institutions.
The next morning they will march to the British embassy and overnight near there that evening. On Tuesday they want to continue to the US embassy and on Wednesday they will go to the South African embassy.
They will then proceed the next day to the office of the European Union and on Friday they will go to the United Nations House in Klein Windhoek.
“Our programme will go ahead as planned. If the Swapo government put up barriers, they must do so. If they put up barriers it means that they are ready to kill us,” said Ndeunyema.
CATHERINE SASMAN