Manuel Ferreira
21-03-2008, 16:43
AN EXPOSÉ ABOUT NUJOMA’S CIA CONNECTIONS: PART 10
Posted by: nshr on May 31, 2007 - 02:32 PM
Critical Analysis by P. ya Nangoloh*
The shocking but not surprising exposé on pages 49 and 50 of a book titled My life with the SA Defense Force written by former South African (SA) Defense Minister Magnus Malan, has opened a whole can of worms about the Founding Father of the Namibian Nation and former State President Sam Nujoma.
Please note once again that this analysis is mine alone in my personal capacity about Mr. Nujoma ONLY in his personal capacity. This also is not about all SWAPO Party members. This is not even about the SWAPO Party or even my fellow former People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) fighters per se. This critical analysis is my retaliatory strike on Nujoma for all the insults, humiliations, character assassinations and other forms of demonization I and surely many others have in this country suffered at his hands since Namibian independence.
I also want to demonstrate that even though I respect Mr. Nujoma as, for example, I respect my own mother and as I respected my late father, I am NOT afraid of Nujoma! The biblical David was also not afraid of that monstrous Goliath. Nujoma had cast the first stone at me by inter alia having recently insulted me by having falsely called me inter alia “a homosexual” and “a CIA agent”. Moreover, in Oshiwambo tradition--and I hope Mr. Nujoma is a full-blooded and a cultured Ovambo--there are basically two things a man cannot say to another man: to call him “a homosexual” and to insult him with his mother. Mr. Nujoma apparently thinks that, having been given the title of the Founding Father of the Namibian Nation, gives him any extra right to insult anyone with impunity, however poor or younger that person may be! Local NBC Director General Bob Vezera Kandetu last August warned:
“Those who live in glasshouses must not throw stones”.
In this Part 10 of my exposé of Nujoma’s CIA connections I will additionally expose Nujoma’s contradictions and double-talks and then I will proceed to demonstrate and expose how and why Mr. Nujoma should be held fully responsible for several bombing and landmine planting incidents directed at soft targets in the country between 1960 and 1989. As most Namibians are well aware, these reckless incidents in the 1980s had resulted in the deaths of many innocent local civilians and even some US diplomats. Since such acts had been carried out in the context of an armed conflict, they are commonly known as war crimes.
Surely Mr. Nujoma must be credited for the good things he had done for this country during the liberation struggle. He must, however, also be exposed, as I hereby do, for the suspiciously bad things that he had done in favor of the enemy during that struggle. After all, the purpose of this critical analysis is to expose inter alia Nujoma’s reactionary and unpatriotic deeds during the armed liberation struggle for Namibia’s freedom and independence. The truth must come out!
In exposing Nujoma’s command responsibility for these acts, I will use both my natural intelligence and logical inference. I am strongly encouraging you to also utilize your critical thinking skills and your imaginations. Do not just take my words for it. I will try, as usual, to back up my arguments with inter alia the words from Nujoma’s own mouth. I will also rely on some official and or judicial enquiries as contained inter alia in a book authored by Mr. Justice Bryan O’Linn.
I am, however, concerned that Nujoma and his henchmen would also try to dishonestly discredit the otherwise unimpeachable Judge O’Linn. They have in the past argued without success, however, that everything that Magnus Malan says should be summarily rejected simply because he was fighting against PLAN prior to Namibian independence. I am therefore wondering what Nujoma and or his henchmen would do or say about Judge O’Linn. Who is Judge Bryan O’Linn?
To refresh your memory, Mr. Justice O’Linn is an impeccable source for what I am saying here inter alia because he was probably the best known of those of our fearless white lawyers who had defended captured PLAN and other black freedom fighters against accusations from white apartheid SA prosecutors at the time. I strongly recommend that you read Justice O’Linn’s latest story Namibia: the Sacred Trust of Civilization: Ideal and Reality.
To begin with, let us for argument’s sake take a closer look in sequences at each one of the several bombing and mine planting incidents, including massacres, which Mr. Nujoma is referring to in his own story Where Others Wavered. Then let us try to contextualize what and how Nujoma says or does not say about each one of these incidents:
1. The bombing of Okatana Motorhawe (Oshakati, 1984)
Mr. Nujoma’s claims on pages 334 (bottom) and 335 (top) that:
“When the South African Defence Force invaded Angola and occupied Cunene province in 1981, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 532 (May 1983) which called upon South Africa to withdraw, and the US sent observers to monitor the South African withdrawal … The [US] monitoring team went to Oshakati where two were killed by a bomb as they were filling up their car at a petrol station inside the South African Defence Military headquarters”.
Obviously, Mr. Nujoma is referring to the brutal incident in which two American diplomats, viz. Kenneth G. Crabtree and Dennis Whyte Keogh had been killed. The duo died in a bomb blast at the Okatana gas station in Oshakati in 1984. The filling station was a very popular public place, also known as Omahooli gaNakambonde (i.e.Oshiwambo for Nakambonde’s filling station). Well known and wealthy Ovambo businessman Thomas Nakambonde himself also died in the same bomb blast while Evangelist Thomas Shigwedha sustained serious injuries. However, Nujoma conveniently omits to mention this fact. Furthermore, this petrol station was and is still located at least two kilometers north of the former SADF Military Headquarters (HQ) now known only as Sector 10 in the town of Oshakati. That is to say, the deadly bomb did not explode “inside” the SADF military HQ as Nujoma claims!
Moreover, I want to put this question to Mr. Nujoma: why would the South African (SA) military plant a bomb against themselves inside their headquarters (HQ)? Why does Nujoma not also boast about having ordered the killing of the two American “imperialists”? To me the implication in this usual Nujoma double talk and evasiveness is very clear: Nujoma conveniently does not boast about the bombing of the Okatana petrol station, apparently simply because he is afraid to offend his CIA friends and benefactors, such as Mr. Maurice Tempelsman and, of course, Henry Kissinger! Moreover, when confronted about the incident by US Under-Secretary of State Sam Armacost in Washington in 1988 Nujoma claimed: “[I]t was the South Africans who were answerable for that incident”.
2. Ongwediva Training College (Ongwediva, 1985)
I urge those of who have a copy of Nujoma’s book Where Others Wavered to turn on page 337 (at the bottom) where he admittedly and boastingly claims:
“PLAN activities on several fronts reached a new height from June to August 1985. Bridges were blown, telegraph pylons and power lines were brought down, the Eenhana military base badly damaged in a mortar attack and the Ongwediva Training College, much used as a propaganda showpiece by the South Africans, was bombed. Our sabotage activities were widespread and mines were laid [on public roads] to do maximum damage to South African patrols…”
In his own words above, PLAN Commander-in-Chief Nujoma implies that between June and August 1985 he had ordered the bombing of the Ongwediva Training College. Nujoma even show-offingly explains that the rationale behind bombing the College was because this educational institution was “much used as a propaganda showpiece by the South Africans”. From this unscrupulous public pronouncement a logical conclusion can be made that Nujoma could not care less about the loss of civilian lives at the College.
Hence, my question is: if Nujoma could order the bombing of the Ongwediva Training College, which normally housed hundreds of civilian students, what prevents him to also order the bombing of, for example, the Oshakati bank, which was also used by civilians? Or does this mean that Nujoma only cared about the lives of those civilians who made use of the bank, but did not care about the lives of hundreds of students in the Ongwediva Training College? If so, what did the students do to him to be bombed? In any case what military or patriotic sense did it make to destroy a school, simply because the South Africans had been using it as their so-called propaganda showpiece? What is the material difference between the students in the Ongwediva Training College, on the one hand, and the more than 100 civilians plus only three SADF soldiers in the bank, on the other?
Where and how are these bank bomb incidents substantially different from the SA attacks, for example, on SWAPO bases at Cassinga in southern Angola where many civilians were also massacred? In this case how is Nujoma materially different from apartheid SA President PW Botha? Now that the College had survived his bombs, what does Nujoma think in retrospective about this very useful national educational institution? By the way, why did Nujoma not order the bombing of State House where the SA Administrator-General stayed? Or am I to conclude that Mr. Nujoma deliberately avoided ordering the bombing of State House for ulterior motives, simply because he had requested his friend SA’s Administrator General Dr. Willie van Niekerk to “keep my house warm for me”?
3. Gobabis Gas Station (Gobabis, 1986)
Compare the aforementioned Okatana filling station bombing incident with what Nujoma says below on page 366 (towards the bottom) of his autobiography below:
“Later in 1986 there were considerable PLAN military initiatives within Namibia … The attack on a key petrol station at Gobabis by fighters who had come over the border from Botswana in the beginning of 1987 was the first of a series of PLAN actions far from the northern war zone”.
Can you hear? Here Mr. Nujoma makes yet another evasive U-turn. From the above quote, he proudly claims to have ordered inter alia the bombing of a gas station in Gobabis. The insinuation in this warped logic is therefore also very clear: Nujoma had ordered the attack on the gas station in Gobabis. But at the same time he denies having ordered that brutal attack on Oshakati’s Okatana filling station! Or did Nujoma not care about killing civilians at the Gobabis gas station, simply because Gobabis and its inhabitants are not the same as the dwellers of Oshakati?
4. Gustav Voigts Centre & Kalahari Sands Hotel (Windhoek, 1987)
PLAN Commander-in-Chief Nujoma also takes pride in the bombing of yet another civilian landscape. On page 366 of his book Mr. Nujoma insinuates that as part, of “the 1987 offensive”, he had also ordered the destruction by bombing of the car park of the Gustav Voigts Centre and Kalahari Sands Hotel in the heart of Windhoek in July 1987. According to Nujoma, this explosion went off “only 500 meters from the closely guarded SADF headquarters in Windhoek”. My own calculations show that the Bastion Building, which then housed the SADF HQ at the time, is located less than 150 meters just south of the Gustav Voigts Centre carport. Be as it may, suffice it to say that this car park too, was and is still being predominantly used by both local civilians and foreign tourists. Fortunately, the bomb went off at the time when there were no civilians and, hence, it only inflicted maximum damage to civilian property.
According to Judge O’Linn, Paulus Andreas, one of the two PLAN soldiers who had bombed the above carport, testified in the Supreme Court of Namibia that he acted “under orders of his military commander one Johnny Mutwa”. Stefanus Nghifikwa, the second PLAN fighter, also testified that he was “acting under compulsion from [Nujoma] and cooperated because he feared that [Nujoma] would have him killed if he refused or failed to cooperate”. The court concluded inter alia that the aim of bombing the Gustav Voigts Centre and Kalahari Sands Hotel car park was to inflict “maximum death of civilians and destruction of private property”.
5. Oshakati Bank Bomb Massacre (Oshakati, 1988)
Nujoma continues on page 280 of his autobiography by saying:
“Our bombing campaign inside the country showed that we had PLAN units as far south as Windhoek, Keetmanshoop and even Oranjemund, and the PLAN combatants in the war zone timed their attacks to coincide with major international developments or local political events … When Frans Joseph Strauss, the right-wing German leader, visited Namibia we exploded a bomb in the Suiderhof military base, Windhoek. The explosion on [January 28] 1988 was heard all over Windhoek and the news was carried worldwide by the media”.
Then Nujoma cunningly makes another U-turn and continues saying:
“Three weeks later [on February 19] 1988, to discredit SWAPO, the South Africans exploded a bomb in the First National Bank in Oshakati, killing 27 and wounding 70 of the crowd who were there to deposit their end-of-the-month pay cheques, most of them hospital workers. Among those killed was the daughter of Bishop Dumeni”.
Hmmmm, do you hear? The implication in the above flip flop statement by Nujoma is also very clear to me. Clearly Nujoma is conveniently running away from his own deed, apparently in order to avoid public outcry and censure! In addition, this is what Nujoma also says about the bank bomb atrocity:
“The Council of Churches in Namibia [(CCN)] immediately [sic] issued a statement listing the evidence for South African perpetration of this atrocity. We called it ‘part of the dirty propaganda campaign to smear the name of SWAPO’. I was able to tell a delegation of white Namibians from ‘Namibian Peace Plan 435’ shortly afterwards that it was ‘against SWAPO policy to attack so-called soft targets’ and that ‘SWAPO denies involvement in the Oshakati bank bombing massacre’”.
I could understand the rationale behind bombing the South African Defense Force (SADF)’s military bases at Eenhana, Okahao, Elundu and Suiderhof, which were legitimate military targets. However, I strongly condemn and entirely disagree with Nujoma that bombing soft targets, such as a training college, a school, a post office, a bank packed with people, a gas station, a meat market, a public parking lot and or mining public roads serve any legitimate military objective.
Furthermore, Mr. Nujoma evasively claims that “three weeks after” he had ordered the bombing of the SADF’s Suiderhof military base in Windhoek on January 28 1988, the “South Africans exploded a bomb in the First National Bank in Oshakati, killing 27 and wounding 70”. As you are well aware this brutal bank bomb incident had occurred on February 19 1988. According to Judge O’Linn, on or around August 16 1988 then PLAN demolition cadre and now the late Leonard Sheehama inter alia admitted under oath in the Ondangwa Magistrate’s Court that he had received orders from, among others, PLAN Commander-in-Chief Nujoma to bomb that bank.
Sheehama would tell the Ondangwa court that the First National Bank at Oshakati was even considered a “high priority” target because it had been “mainly used by the Boers and puppets and is … an extension of the Pretoria regime”. Moreover, Sheehama also testified that he had received orders to assassinate, among others, Christian Democratic Action (CDA) Leader Peter Kalangula. He had also told the court that Kalangula was to be eliminated because he was “a puppet with a big mouth”.
It was common knowledge that Nujoma viewed, among others, the Reverend Kalangula as “a puppet”. I have also indicated in Part 9 that several rival political leaders, including the Reverend Cornelius Ndjoba and Herero Paramount Chief and DTA President Clemens Kapuuo, had been assassinated after, among others, Nujoma called them as “puppets”.
Furthermore, in an apparent attempt to hide behind the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN), Nujoma claims that the ecumenical body had listed “the evidence” that the South Africans had perpetrated that Oshakati bank bomb massacre. What and where is that evidence? I do not believe that the Reverend Bishop Kleopas Dumeni or the Reverend Dr. Abisai Shejavali had such evidence.
I am, however, well aware that by now everybody knows that PLAN Commander-in-Chief Nujoma had ordered the bombing of that bank. Moreover, apart from the testimonies of Leonard Sheehama there is ample circumstantial evidence suggesting that PLAN Commander-in-Chief Nujoma would have ordered the bombing of the bank:
Firstly, on February 20 1988 at Lubango, a certain Salem Shikutuwa then Chief Commissar of the Tobias Hainyeko Training Centre would announce at a morning parade that PLAN’s demolition squad blew up the bank at Oshakati. Salem would explain that “yesterday our demolition squad blew up a bank in Oshakati, which gives money to the Boers to buy Casspirs and helicopters”.
Secondly, one of Nujoma’s uncritical admirers, a certain Kangwe Keenyala, uses to “entertain” the listeners to NBC’s Oshiwambo Radio waves to the effect that he and other PLAN fighters had received ‘training in Eastern bloc countries in inter alia how to blow up bridges and banks of the Boers and to kill Kandove’s filth as well as Vorster’s dogs’.
Thirdly, in my opinion, the First National Bank (FNB) was part of targetable economic enterprises of the apartheid SA regime at the time and, hence, the bank was an actionable military target. Moreover, this bank was also part and parcel of the sanction-busting multinational corporations at that time. Some of these corporations, such as Maurice Tempelsman’s Anglo-American Corporation and De Beers, were strictly prohibited from exploiting Namibia’s natural resources under the 1974 UN Decree No 1.
Fourthly, hence, in the absence of the civilian population, the multinational commercial bank was, in my opinion also, an actionable military target. Fifthly, at the time Sheehama placed the deadly 8-kilogram explosive in that bank, there were three SADF members standing at the enquiries counter where Sheehama placed the device. Sixthly, at least three white women died in the explosion. One of the women, Ms. Janet Human, was wife to Colonel Human, Officer Commanding the CID of the SA Police (SAP) at Oshakati. Seventhly, Sheehama had a track record of planting bombs in several other public places elsewhere in the country. For example, on August 2 1986 he had also planted bombs in public places at Walvis Bay, such as the Atlantic Meat Market where five civilians were killed and 23 others were injured.
Eighthly, on February 6 1987, i.e. almost a year previously, another PLAN combatant, viz. Afunde Nghiyolwa, also planted a bomb at the same bank at Oshakati. As a result, one boy, a certain Levi Ipinge died while five other civilians, viz. Lukas Mweneni, Johannes Nambili, Mumbala Mwatumbuke, Shiave Ndemfinda and Loteni Shambeni, sustained injuries. Nghiyolwa was sentenced to a combined 20-years imprisonment for his part in the Oshakati bank bomb blast on February 6 1987.
6. Mining of Public Roads
In his book Mr. Nujoma boastingly also declares that “our sabotage activities were widespread and mines were laid [on public roads] to do maximum damage to South African patrols.” And maximum damage had, indeed, been inflicted, not to the mine protected SA armored personnel carriers, but to the civilian lives and property. In order to understand what I am talking about here, just travel along the Onandjokwe-Eenhana road in Ovamboland and you will witness the remnants of the “maximum damage” Nujoma’s landmines had caused to civilian automobiles! Or how many enemy SA soldiers had died in those landmine incidents?
What baffles me—not surprises me—is the fact that Nujoma still sees these deeds as heroic. If I were him I would have long time ago tendered my humble apology instead! There is an anecdote where Nujoma would have ordered the bombing of oil installations at Walvis Bay. But when he would be told that such an attack would lead to great loss of civilian life, Nujoma would rancorously retort: “I don’t need the people, I only need the country”!
7. Oshikuku Massacre (Oshipanda, 1982)
On March 10 1982 ten (10) villagers, half of them females, were mercilessly butchered, supposedly because they had heroically refused to cooperate with four or five of their soon-to-be killers. The killers, who were well known PLAN fighters, were looking for the victims’ affluent relative, now the late Hubertus Namboga Mateus, commonly known as “Akubetus”. The “crime” of the victims was that all of them had bravely “refused” to reveal Akubetus’ whereabouts. The incident took place at Oshipanda village, some 10 kilometers west of Oshikuku’s St. Mary’s Roman Catholic mission. This is what and how Nujoma says about the heinous massacre on pages 326 and 327 (at the bottom) of his book Where Others Wavered:
“On 10 March 1982 … a Koevoet hit squad forcibly entered the homestead of Gisela Uupindi, in Oshipanda village in the Uukwambi district. Five armed Koevoet ejected the eleven residents of the homestead, and grilled them for information about Ms. Uupindi’s son, Mr. Mateus Akumbe, who was an employee of the Consolidated Diamond Mines [(CDM)] at Oranjemund, and who was not present in the homestead. The residents repeatedly denied knowledge of the whereabouts of Mr. Akumbe. The Koevoet then held them at gunpoint while the homestead was ransacked for money, clothing and other valuables. Finally, the victims, including two young children, were lined up and shot. The Koevoet killers left eleven people for dead, and then continued to fire rounds into the air and at a parked vehicle as they departed the area. Miraculously, one of the eleven, Mr. Yoliindje Nuuyoma, survived unwounded, and was able later to give his eye-witness account of the massacre”.
However, according to my information based inter alia on my own in situ investigation, prior to the incident, PLAN fighters had been looking for Akubetus, who was billed as “a puppet”. Two fellow CDM employees of his, viz. Eembezi Amoonga and Kaishera Amthenu, allegedly accused Akubetus of having “knocked” them in an illegal diamond transaction. Hence, in order to revenge and to have him eliminated fastest, Amoonga and Amthenu fabricated a story that Akubetus was opapeta (i.e. “a puppet”). They informed PLAN fighters accordingly. Many other innocent people had died in this way in Ovamboland. It had also been common knowledge in Ovamboland at the time that inter alia Nujoma used the term opapeta to refer to those accused of being collaborators with SA security forces.
Moreover, according to the surviving relatives, several months prior to the incident, a group of well known PLAN fighters, led by “Johnny Kalyamboga” and “Africa”, looted Akubetus’ well-stocked shop, now called New Life Bar, at Oshipanda village, at approximately 21h00. They loaded the entire merchandize into Akubetus’ own brand new motor vehicle and then ordered him to go with them to Angola.
Sensing that his life was in imminent danger, Akubetus pretended to cooperate with his captors. Hence, he requested permission from his captors to pass by his homestead, less than two kilometers northwest of the Oshipanda village cuca shops, in order for him to collect his personal effects. Upon arrival, they parked vehicle just outside the homestead and Akubetus entered while his captors waited in the vehicle outside. Immediately thereafter he emerged through a private exit behind the homestead and ran away into the nearest thick bushes to the east of the homestead. Fearing that Akubetus might have gone to report them to SA security forces, ‘Johnny Kalyamboga’ and his colleagues hurriedly drove off with the merchandize.
According to my information, part of the looted merchandize was later handed over to the aforementioned Amoonga at Ogongo village where well known SA Police Warrant Officer Simeon Nghoshi conducted an investigation in an attempt to retrieve it.
On March 9 1982 ‘Johnny Kalyamboga’, ‘Africa’ and three other would-be killers returned from Angola with the view to eliminate Akubetus or kidnap him. On their way to Oshipanda village they also killed a man and his wife at Okakukaaumbi village, a few kilometers north of Oshipanda village, at approximately 22h00. The murdered couple was also accused of being “puppets”.
The killers first went to another homestead where they almost killed people because they could not find Akubetus there. But they were convincingly told that they were at ‘a wrong place’. They were then directed to Akubetus’ homestead where they arrived at approximately 02h00 on March 10 1982. Since Akubetus was not present, the killers started interrogating his family members on his whereabouts. However, fearing that revealing Akubetus’ whereabouts would result in his immediate death, the soon-to-be victims categorically refused to cooperate with Johnny Kalyamboga and his team and, hence, the brutal massacre. The killers used AK-47 submachine guns and bayonets in the wicked incident. Before leaving the scene the killers sprayed Akubetus’ vehicle with gunfire deflating the tires and shattering the windscreen.
On their way back from Oshipanda village towards the Angolan border they returned to Okakukaaumbi village where at approximately 05h00 they found a lover returning from escorting his girlfriend after the two had spent a night together. ‘Kalyamboga’ them then also murdered this man on suspicion that he might have been monitoring them.
According to relatives, Akubetus’s younger nephew, Nepolo Tobias Nepolo lya Mpanda himself also an affluent CDM employee, was abducted to Angola in 1986. Upon arrival in southern Angola members of Nujoma’s illiterate security service accused him of being a “puppet” and eliminated him.
The killing of members of Akubetus’ family and destroying his property suggest that the killers also harbored vengefulness and personal hatred towards him and wanted to hurt him in the worst fashion they could. This scheme of things suggests that the above-mentioned diamond deal might have also contributed to the rare brutality on the part of ‘Kalyamboga’ and his cohorts.
8. Oshitutuma mini-Massacre (Oshitutuma, 1987)
In a separate but similar incident in 1987 two PLAN fighters carrying out Nujoma’s indirect orders allegedly also executed a certain Kayeya, his mother and his wife. The incident took place in broad day light just north of Oshitutuma village. This village is located just west of Oshipanda village. The victims were first shot with an AK-47 assault rifle after which they were dragged into a hut which was then set alight! I have also personally investigated this incident in loco and I have in my possession a video material about this equally heinous case. Like Akubetus, Kayeya, then a chef at the Ogongo Agricultural College, was also accused of being a “puppet”. His wife and mother were murdered simply because the brave women tried to verbally “defend this dog”!
Soon after the mini-massacre members of SA-controlled armed formation appeared and in an ensuing hot pursuit the two executioners were themselves shot dead in shootout a few kilometers north of the murder scene.
9. Common Cause
It had been common cause in Ovamboland at the time that the alleged “puppets” were either summarily executed or were abducted into southern Angola. There are numerous incidents of this nature that could be cited. Moreover, the aforementioned PLAN fighter Stefanus Nghifikwa had also testified in the Supreme Court of Namibia in 1987 that he had known of occasions where those who had refused to cooperate with SWAPO had been brutally murdered. PLAN demolition cadre Leonard Sheehama also had testified in the Ondangwa Magistrate’s Court that he had received orders from, among others, Nujoma to eliminate “puppets”, including a certain Matheus Hamukoto and CDA President Reverend Peter Kalangula.
The above testimonies by Stefanus Nghifikwa and the late Leonard Sheehama have an alibi elsewhere. According to the ex-SWAPO detainees, PLAN Commander-in-Chief Nujoma and his henchmen “even went to an extent of unilaterally drawing up a so-called Twelve Point Order Circular of 1981.” In terms of the lethal Circular, the following “offences” were punishable by firing squad of any PLAN combatant who:
(1) failed to report to his superior about the enemy activities in the area of his operation so that prompt action could be taken;
(2) endangered the security of his unit by his actions;
(3) fails in executing his assigned mission;
(4) threw away or lost in combat in one way or the other, without relevant reasons, his combat outfit;
(5) failed after combat to report back at the assembly point;
(6) instigated others not to execute orders given to them by their seniors;
(7) refused to execute orders from his direct commander;
(8) failed to receive and accommodate people in such a way that these people’s security was endangered;
(9) destroyed or incapacitated PLAN properties;
(10) deserted and was found
(11) was captured alive and revealed information; and
(12) misinformed his seniors.
In the face of the above Twelve Orders Circular by PLAN’s Commander-in-Chief Nujoma do you think that individual PLAN commanders and soldiers should be held responsible for any atrocities they might have committed, including the massacres of civilians referred to above? I personally do not believe that a single subordinate PLAN commander and combatant should be held responsible for carrying out Nujoma’s deadly Twelve Orders!
I sincerely hold that, as PLAN Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Nujoma must not run away and or hide from all the above misdeeds. He must own up to them!
1) “Political battles continue”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit. p.334-335
2) ibidem, p. 335
3) “Political battles continue”, Where Others Wavered : The Autobiography of Sam Nujoma, Panaf, 2001, p.337
4) “Beginning of the end of the armed liberation struggle”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit. p.366
5) “The State vs Paulus Andreas and Stephanus Nghifikwa”, Namibia: the Sacred Trust of Civilization: Ideal and Reality, Gamsberg Macmillan, Windhoek, p.249
6) “The State vs Paulus Andreas and Stephanus Nghifikwa”, op.cit. 250
7) “The State vs Paulus Andreas and Stephanus Nghifikwa”, op.cit. 251
8) “Battles on the political front continue”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit. p.380
9) “Battles on the political front continue”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit. p.380
10) “Battles on the political front continue”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit. p.380
11) “Battles on the political front continue”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit. p.380
12) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.254
13) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.254
14) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.255
15) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.255
16) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.254
17) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.253
18) “The State vs Afunde Nghiyolwa”, op.cit. p.252
19) “The State vs Afunde Nghiyolwa”, op.cit. p.252
20) “The State vs Afunde Nghiyolwa”, op.ict. p.252
21) “Political battles continue”, Where Others Wavered : The Autobiography of Sam Nujoma, Panaf, 2001, p.337
22) “Massacre at Oshikuku, 10 March 1982”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit.p.326-327
23) “The State vs Paulus Andreas and Stefanus Nghifikwa”, p.250
24) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.254
25) “A Report to the Namibian People: Historical Account of the SWAPO Spy-Drama”, Breaking the Wall of Silence (BWS), Windhoek, 1997, p.14-15
Note: P. ya Nangoloh is a political analyst and executive director and founder of National Society for Human Rights (NSHR). NSHR is Namibia’s leading human rights monitoring and advocacy organization. Mr. ya Nangoloh can be reached via nshr@iafrica.com.na. This analysis is done in his personal capacity.
Posted by: nshr on May 31, 2007 - 02:32 PM
Critical Analysis by P. ya Nangoloh*
The shocking but not surprising exposé on pages 49 and 50 of a book titled My life with the SA Defense Force written by former South African (SA) Defense Minister Magnus Malan, has opened a whole can of worms about the Founding Father of the Namibian Nation and former State President Sam Nujoma.
Please note once again that this analysis is mine alone in my personal capacity about Mr. Nujoma ONLY in his personal capacity. This also is not about all SWAPO Party members. This is not even about the SWAPO Party or even my fellow former People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) fighters per se. This critical analysis is my retaliatory strike on Nujoma for all the insults, humiliations, character assassinations and other forms of demonization I and surely many others have in this country suffered at his hands since Namibian independence.
I also want to demonstrate that even though I respect Mr. Nujoma as, for example, I respect my own mother and as I respected my late father, I am NOT afraid of Nujoma! The biblical David was also not afraid of that monstrous Goliath. Nujoma had cast the first stone at me by inter alia having recently insulted me by having falsely called me inter alia “a homosexual” and “a CIA agent”. Moreover, in Oshiwambo tradition--and I hope Mr. Nujoma is a full-blooded and a cultured Ovambo--there are basically two things a man cannot say to another man: to call him “a homosexual” and to insult him with his mother. Mr. Nujoma apparently thinks that, having been given the title of the Founding Father of the Namibian Nation, gives him any extra right to insult anyone with impunity, however poor or younger that person may be! Local NBC Director General Bob Vezera Kandetu last August warned:
“Those who live in glasshouses must not throw stones”.
In this Part 10 of my exposé of Nujoma’s CIA connections I will additionally expose Nujoma’s contradictions and double-talks and then I will proceed to demonstrate and expose how and why Mr. Nujoma should be held fully responsible for several bombing and landmine planting incidents directed at soft targets in the country between 1960 and 1989. As most Namibians are well aware, these reckless incidents in the 1980s had resulted in the deaths of many innocent local civilians and even some US diplomats. Since such acts had been carried out in the context of an armed conflict, they are commonly known as war crimes.
Surely Mr. Nujoma must be credited for the good things he had done for this country during the liberation struggle. He must, however, also be exposed, as I hereby do, for the suspiciously bad things that he had done in favor of the enemy during that struggle. After all, the purpose of this critical analysis is to expose inter alia Nujoma’s reactionary and unpatriotic deeds during the armed liberation struggle for Namibia’s freedom and independence. The truth must come out!
In exposing Nujoma’s command responsibility for these acts, I will use both my natural intelligence and logical inference. I am strongly encouraging you to also utilize your critical thinking skills and your imaginations. Do not just take my words for it. I will try, as usual, to back up my arguments with inter alia the words from Nujoma’s own mouth. I will also rely on some official and or judicial enquiries as contained inter alia in a book authored by Mr. Justice Bryan O’Linn.
I am, however, concerned that Nujoma and his henchmen would also try to dishonestly discredit the otherwise unimpeachable Judge O’Linn. They have in the past argued without success, however, that everything that Magnus Malan says should be summarily rejected simply because he was fighting against PLAN prior to Namibian independence. I am therefore wondering what Nujoma and or his henchmen would do or say about Judge O’Linn. Who is Judge Bryan O’Linn?
To refresh your memory, Mr. Justice O’Linn is an impeccable source for what I am saying here inter alia because he was probably the best known of those of our fearless white lawyers who had defended captured PLAN and other black freedom fighters against accusations from white apartheid SA prosecutors at the time. I strongly recommend that you read Justice O’Linn’s latest story Namibia: the Sacred Trust of Civilization: Ideal and Reality.
To begin with, let us for argument’s sake take a closer look in sequences at each one of the several bombing and mine planting incidents, including massacres, which Mr. Nujoma is referring to in his own story Where Others Wavered. Then let us try to contextualize what and how Nujoma says or does not say about each one of these incidents:
1. The bombing of Okatana Motorhawe (Oshakati, 1984)
Mr. Nujoma’s claims on pages 334 (bottom) and 335 (top) that:
“When the South African Defence Force invaded Angola and occupied Cunene province in 1981, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 532 (May 1983) which called upon South Africa to withdraw, and the US sent observers to monitor the South African withdrawal … The [US] monitoring team went to Oshakati where two were killed by a bomb as they were filling up their car at a petrol station inside the South African Defence Military headquarters”.
Obviously, Mr. Nujoma is referring to the brutal incident in which two American diplomats, viz. Kenneth G. Crabtree and Dennis Whyte Keogh had been killed. The duo died in a bomb blast at the Okatana gas station in Oshakati in 1984. The filling station was a very popular public place, also known as Omahooli gaNakambonde (i.e.Oshiwambo for Nakambonde’s filling station). Well known and wealthy Ovambo businessman Thomas Nakambonde himself also died in the same bomb blast while Evangelist Thomas Shigwedha sustained serious injuries. However, Nujoma conveniently omits to mention this fact. Furthermore, this petrol station was and is still located at least two kilometers north of the former SADF Military Headquarters (HQ) now known only as Sector 10 in the town of Oshakati. That is to say, the deadly bomb did not explode “inside” the SADF military HQ as Nujoma claims!
Moreover, I want to put this question to Mr. Nujoma: why would the South African (SA) military plant a bomb against themselves inside their headquarters (HQ)? Why does Nujoma not also boast about having ordered the killing of the two American “imperialists”? To me the implication in this usual Nujoma double talk and evasiveness is very clear: Nujoma conveniently does not boast about the bombing of the Okatana petrol station, apparently simply because he is afraid to offend his CIA friends and benefactors, such as Mr. Maurice Tempelsman and, of course, Henry Kissinger! Moreover, when confronted about the incident by US Under-Secretary of State Sam Armacost in Washington in 1988 Nujoma claimed: “[I]t was the South Africans who were answerable for that incident”.
2. Ongwediva Training College (Ongwediva, 1985)
I urge those of who have a copy of Nujoma’s book Where Others Wavered to turn on page 337 (at the bottom) where he admittedly and boastingly claims:
“PLAN activities on several fronts reached a new height from June to August 1985. Bridges were blown, telegraph pylons and power lines were brought down, the Eenhana military base badly damaged in a mortar attack and the Ongwediva Training College, much used as a propaganda showpiece by the South Africans, was bombed. Our sabotage activities were widespread and mines were laid [on public roads] to do maximum damage to South African patrols…”
In his own words above, PLAN Commander-in-Chief Nujoma implies that between June and August 1985 he had ordered the bombing of the Ongwediva Training College. Nujoma even show-offingly explains that the rationale behind bombing the College was because this educational institution was “much used as a propaganda showpiece by the South Africans”. From this unscrupulous public pronouncement a logical conclusion can be made that Nujoma could not care less about the loss of civilian lives at the College.
Hence, my question is: if Nujoma could order the bombing of the Ongwediva Training College, which normally housed hundreds of civilian students, what prevents him to also order the bombing of, for example, the Oshakati bank, which was also used by civilians? Or does this mean that Nujoma only cared about the lives of those civilians who made use of the bank, but did not care about the lives of hundreds of students in the Ongwediva Training College? If so, what did the students do to him to be bombed? In any case what military or patriotic sense did it make to destroy a school, simply because the South Africans had been using it as their so-called propaganda showpiece? What is the material difference between the students in the Ongwediva Training College, on the one hand, and the more than 100 civilians plus only three SADF soldiers in the bank, on the other?
Where and how are these bank bomb incidents substantially different from the SA attacks, for example, on SWAPO bases at Cassinga in southern Angola where many civilians were also massacred? In this case how is Nujoma materially different from apartheid SA President PW Botha? Now that the College had survived his bombs, what does Nujoma think in retrospective about this very useful national educational institution? By the way, why did Nujoma not order the bombing of State House where the SA Administrator-General stayed? Or am I to conclude that Mr. Nujoma deliberately avoided ordering the bombing of State House for ulterior motives, simply because he had requested his friend SA’s Administrator General Dr. Willie van Niekerk to “keep my house warm for me”?
3. Gobabis Gas Station (Gobabis, 1986)
Compare the aforementioned Okatana filling station bombing incident with what Nujoma says below on page 366 (towards the bottom) of his autobiography below:
“Later in 1986 there were considerable PLAN military initiatives within Namibia … The attack on a key petrol station at Gobabis by fighters who had come over the border from Botswana in the beginning of 1987 was the first of a series of PLAN actions far from the northern war zone”.
Can you hear? Here Mr. Nujoma makes yet another evasive U-turn. From the above quote, he proudly claims to have ordered inter alia the bombing of a gas station in Gobabis. The insinuation in this warped logic is therefore also very clear: Nujoma had ordered the attack on the gas station in Gobabis. But at the same time he denies having ordered that brutal attack on Oshakati’s Okatana filling station! Or did Nujoma not care about killing civilians at the Gobabis gas station, simply because Gobabis and its inhabitants are not the same as the dwellers of Oshakati?
4. Gustav Voigts Centre & Kalahari Sands Hotel (Windhoek, 1987)
PLAN Commander-in-Chief Nujoma also takes pride in the bombing of yet another civilian landscape. On page 366 of his book Mr. Nujoma insinuates that as part, of “the 1987 offensive”, he had also ordered the destruction by bombing of the car park of the Gustav Voigts Centre and Kalahari Sands Hotel in the heart of Windhoek in July 1987. According to Nujoma, this explosion went off “only 500 meters from the closely guarded SADF headquarters in Windhoek”. My own calculations show that the Bastion Building, which then housed the SADF HQ at the time, is located less than 150 meters just south of the Gustav Voigts Centre carport. Be as it may, suffice it to say that this car park too, was and is still being predominantly used by both local civilians and foreign tourists. Fortunately, the bomb went off at the time when there were no civilians and, hence, it only inflicted maximum damage to civilian property.
According to Judge O’Linn, Paulus Andreas, one of the two PLAN soldiers who had bombed the above carport, testified in the Supreme Court of Namibia that he acted “under orders of his military commander one Johnny Mutwa”. Stefanus Nghifikwa, the second PLAN fighter, also testified that he was “acting under compulsion from [Nujoma] and cooperated because he feared that [Nujoma] would have him killed if he refused or failed to cooperate”. The court concluded inter alia that the aim of bombing the Gustav Voigts Centre and Kalahari Sands Hotel car park was to inflict “maximum death of civilians and destruction of private property”.
5. Oshakati Bank Bomb Massacre (Oshakati, 1988)
Nujoma continues on page 280 of his autobiography by saying:
“Our bombing campaign inside the country showed that we had PLAN units as far south as Windhoek, Keetmanshoop and even Oranjemund, and the PLAN combatants in the war zone timed their attacks to coincide with major international developments or local political events … When Frans Joseph Strauss, the right-wing German leader, visited Namibia we exploded a bomb in the Suiderhof military base, Windhoek. The explosion on [January 28] 1988 was heard all over Windhoek and the news was carried worldwide by the media”.
Then Nujoma cunningly makes another U-turn and continues saying:
“Three weeks later [on February 19] 1988, to discredit SWAPO, the South Africans exploded a bomb in the First National Bank in Oshakati, killing 27 and wounding 70 of the crowd who were there to deposit their end-of-the-month pay cheques, most of them hospital workers. Among those killed was the daughter of Bishop Dumeni”.
Hmmmm, do you hear? The implication in the above flip flop statement by Nujoma is also very clear to me. Clearly Nujoma is conveniently running away from his own deed, apparently in order to avoid public outcry and censure! In addition, this is what Nujoma also says about the bank bomb atrocity:
“The Council of Churches in Namibia [(CCN)] immediately [sic] issued a statement listing the evidence for South African perpetration of this atrocity. We called it ‘part of the dirty propaganda campaign to smear the name of SWAPO’. I was able to tell a delegation of white Namibians from ‘Namibian Peace Plan 435’ shortly afterwards that it was ‘against SWAPO policy to attack so-called soft targets’ and that ‘SWAPO denies involvement in the Oshakati bank bombing massacre’”.
I could understand the rationale behind bombing the South African Defense Force (SADF)’s military bases at Eenhana, Okahao, Elundu and Suiderhof, which were legitimate military targets. However, I strongly condemn and entirely disagree with Nujoma that bombing soft targets, such as a training college, a school, a post office, a bank packed with people, a gas station, a meat market, a public parking lot and or mining public roads serve any legitimate military objective.
Furthermore, Mr. Nujoma evasively claims that “three weeks after” he had ordered the bombing of the SADF’s Suiderhof military base in Windhoek on January 28 1988, the “South Africans exploded a bomb in the First National Bank in Oshakati, killing 27 and wounding 70”. As you are well aware this brutal bank bomb incident had occurred on February 19 1988. According to Judge O’Linn, on or around August 16 1988 then PLAN demolition cadre and now the late Leonard Sheehama inter alia admitted under oath in the Ondangwa Magistrate’s Court that he had received orders from, among others, PLAN Commander-in-Chief Nujoma to bomb that bank.
Sheehama would tell the Ondangwa court that the First National Bank at Oshakati was even considered a “high priority” target because it had been “mainly used by the Boers and puppets and is … an extension of the Pretoria regime”. Moreover, Sheehama also testified that he had received orders to assassinate, among others, Christian Democratic Action (CDA) Leader Peter Kalangula. He had also told the court that Kalangula was to be eliminated because he was “a puppet with a big mouth”.
It was common knowledge that Nujoma viewed, among others, the Reverend Kalangula as “a puppet”. I have also indicated in Part 9 that several rival political leaders, including the Reverend Cornelius Ndjoba and Herero Paramount Chief and DTA President Clemens Kapuuo, had been assassinated after, among others, Nujoma called them as “puppets”.
Furthermore, in an apparent attempt to hide behind the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN), Nujoma claims that the ecumenical body had listed “the evidence” that the South Africans had perpetrated that Oshakati bank bomb massacre. What and where is that evidence? I do not believe that the Reverend Bishop Kleopas Dumeni or the Reverend Dr. Abisai Shejavali had such evidence.
I am, however, well aware that by now everybody knows that PLAN Commander-in-Chief Nujoma had ordered the bombing of that bank. Moreover, apart from the testimonies of Leonard Sheehama there is ample circumstantial evidence suggesting that PLAN Commander-in-Chief Nujoma would have ordered the bombing of the bank:
Firstly, on February 20 1988 at Lubango, a certain Salem Shikutuwa then Chief Commissar of the Tobias Hainyeko Training Centre would announce at a morning parade that PLAN’s demolition squad blew up the bank at Oshakati. Salem would explain that “yesterday our demolition squad blew up a bank in Oshakati, which gives money to the Boers to buy Casspirs and helicopters”.
Secondly, one of Nujoma’s uncritical admirers, a certain Kangwe Keenyala, uses to “entertain” the listeners to NBC’s Oshiwambo Radio waves to the effect that he and other PLAN fighters had received ‘training in Eastern bloc countries in inter alia how to blow up bridges and banks of the Boers and to kill Kandove’s filth as well as Vorster’s dogs’.
Thirdly, in my opinion, the First National Bank (FNB) was part of targetable economic enterprises of the apartheid SA regime at the time and, hence, the bank was an actionable military target. Moreover, this bank was also part and parcel of the sanction-busting multinational corporations at that time. Some of these corporations, such as Maurice Tempelsman’s Anglo-American Corporation and De Beers, were strictly prohibited from exploiting Namibia’s natural resources under the 1974 UN Decree No 1.
Fourthly, hence, in the absence of the civilian population, the multinational commercial bank was, in my opinion also, an actionable military target. Fifthly, at the time Sheehama placed the deadly 8-kilogram explosive in that bank, there were three SADF members standing at the enquiries counter where Sheehama placed the device. Sixthly, at least three white women died in the explosion. One of the women, Ms. Janet Human, was wife to Colonel Human, Officer Commanding the CID of the SA Police (SAP) at Oshakati. Seventhly, Sheehama had a track record of planting bombs in several other public places elsewhere in the country. For example, on August 2 1986 he had also planted bombs in public places at Walvis Bay, such as the Atlantic Meat Market where five civilians were killed and 23 others were injured.
Eighthly, on February 6 1987, i.e. almost a year previously, another PLAN combatant, viz. Afunde Nghiyolwa, also planted a bomb at the same bank at Oshakati. As a result, one boy, a certain Levi Ipinge died while five other civilians, viz. Lukas Mweneni, Johannes Nambili, Mumbala Mwatumbuke, Shiave Ndemfinda and Loteni Shambeni, sustained injuries. Nghiyolwa was sentenced to a combined 20-years imprisonment for his part in the Oshakati bank bomb blast on February 6 1987.
6. Mining of Public Roads
In his book Mr. Nujoma boastingly also declares that “our sabotage activities were widespread and mines were laid [on public roads] to do maximum damage to South African patrols.” And maximum damage had, indeed, been inflicted, not to the mine protected SA armored personnel carriers, but to the civilian lives and property. In order to understand what I am talking about here, just travel along the Onandjokwe-Eenhana road in Ovamboland and you will witness the remnants of the “maximum damage” Nujoma’s landmines had caused to civilian automobiles! Or how many enemy SA soldiers had died in those landmine incidents?
What baffles me—not surprises me—is the fact that Nujoma still sees these deeds as heroic. If I were him I would have long time ago tendered my humble apology instead! There is an anecdote where Nujoma would have ordered the bombing of oil installations at Walvis Bay. But when he would be told that such an attack would lead to great loss of civilian life, Nujoma would rancorously retort: “I don’t need the people, I only need the country”!
7. Oshikuku Massacre (Oshipanda, 1982)
On March 10 1982 ten (10) villagers, half of them females, were mercilessly butchered, supposedly because they had heroically refused to cooperate with four or five of their soon-to-be killers. The killers, who were well known PLAN fighters, were looking for the victims’ affluent relative, now the late Hubertus Namboga Mateus, commonly known as “Akubetus”. The “crime” of the victims was that all of them had bravely “refused” to reveal Akubetus’ whereabouts. The incident took place at Oshipanda village, some 10 kilometers west of Oshikuku’s St. Mary’s Roman Catholic mission. This is what and how Nujoma says about the heinous massacre on pages 326 and 327 (at the bottom) of his book Where Others Wavered:
“On 10 March 1982 … a Koevoet hit squad forcibly entered the homestead of Gisela Uupindi, in Oshipanda village in the Uukwambi district. Five armed Koevoet ejected the eleven residents of the homestead, and grilled them for information about Ms. Uupindi’s son, Mr. Mateus Akumbe, who was an employee of the Consolidated Diamond Mines [(CDM)] at Oranjemund, and who was not present in the homestead. The residents repeatedly denied knowledge of the whereabouts of Mr. Akumbe. The Koevoet then held them at gunpoint while the homestead was ransacked for money, clothing and other valuables. Finally, the victims, including two young children, were lined up and shot. The Koevoet killers left eleven people for dead, and then continued to fire rounds into the air and at a parked vehicle as they departed the area. Miraculously, one of the eleven, Mr. Yoliindje Nuuyoma, survived unwounded, and was able later to give his eye-witness account of the massacre”.
However, according to my information based inter alia on my own in situ investigation, prior to the incident, PLAN fighters had been looking for Akubetus, who was billed as “a puppet”. Two fellow CDM employees of his, viz. Eembezi Amoonga and Kaishera Amthenu, allegedly accused Akubetus of having “knocked” them in an illegal diamond transaction. Hence, in order to revenge and to have him eliminated fastest, Amoonga and Amthenu fabricated a story that Akubetus was opapeta (i.e. “a puppet”). They informed PLAN fighters accordingly. Many other innocent people had died in this way in Ovamboland. It had also been common knowledge in Ovamboland at the time that inter alia Nujoma used the term opapeta to refer to those accused of being collaborators with SA security forces.
Moreover, according to the surviving relatives, several months prior to the incident, a group of well known PLAN fighters, led by “Johnny Kalyamboga” and “Africa”, looted Akubetus’ well-stocked shop, now called New Life Bar, at Oshipanda village, at approximately 21h00. They loaded the entire merchandize into Akubetus’ own brand new motor vehicle and then ordered him to go with them to Angola.
Sensing that his life was in imminent danger, Akubetus pretended to cooperate with his captors. Hence, he requested permission from his captors to pass by his homestead, less than two kilometers northwest of the Oshipanda village cuca shops, in order for him to collect his personal effects. Upon arrival, they parked vehicle just outside the homestead and Akubetus entered while his captors waited in the vehicle outside. Immediately thereafter he emerged through a private exit behind the homestead and ran away into the nearest thick bushes to the east of the homestead. Fearing that Akubetus might have gone to report them to SA security forces, ‘Johnny Kalyamboga’ and his colleagues hurriedly drove off with the merchandize.
According to my information, part of the looted merchandize was later handed over to the aforementioned Amoonga at Ogongo village where well known SA Police Warrant Officer Simeon Nghoshi conducted an investigation in an attempt to retrieve it.
On March 9 1982 ‘Johnny Kalyamboga’, ‘Africa’ and three other would-be killers returned from Angola with the view to eliminate Akubetus or kidnap him. On their way to Oshipanda village they also killed a man and his wife at Okakukaaumbi village, a few kilometers north of Oshipanda village, at approximately 22h00. The murdered couple was also accused of being “puppets”.
The killers first went to another homestead where they almost killed people because they could not find Akubetus there. But they were convincingly told that they were at ‘a wrong place’. They were then directed to Akubetus’ homestead where they arrived at approximately 02h00 on March 10 1982. Since Akubetus was not present, the killers started interrogating his family members on his whereabouts. However, fearing that revealing Akubetus’ whereabouts would result in his immediate death, the soon-to-be victims categorically refused to cooperate with Johnny Kalyamboga and his team and, hence, the brutal massacre. The killers used AK-47 submachine guns and bayonets in the wicked incident. Before leaving the scene the killers sprayed Akubetus’ vehicle with gunfire deflating the tires and shattering the windscreen.
On their way back from Oshipanda village towards the Angolan border they returned to Okakukaaumbi village where at approximately 05h00 they found a lover returning from escorting his girlfriend after the two had spent a night together. ‘Kalyamboga’ them then also murdered this man on suspicion that he might have been monitoring them.
According to relatives, Akubetus’s younger nephew, Nepolo Tobias Nepolo lya Mpanda himself also an affluent CDM employee, was abducted to Angola in 1986. Upon arrival in southern Angola members of Nujoma’s illiterate security service accused him of being a “puppet” and eliminated him.
The killing of members of Akubetus’ family and destroying his property suggest that the killers also harbored vengefulness and personal hatred towards him and wanted to hurt him in the worst fashion they could. This scheme of things suggests that the above-mentioned diamond deal might have also contributed to the rare brutality on the part of ‘Kalyamboga’ and his cohorts.
8. Oshitutuma mini-Massacre (Oshitutuma, 1987)
In a separate but similar incident in 1987 two PLAN fighters carrying out Nujoma’s indirect orders allegedly also executed a certain Kayeya, his mother and his wife. The incident took place in broad day light just north of Oshitutuma village. This village is located just west of Oshipanda village. The victims were first shot with an AK-47 assault rifle after which they were dragged into a hut which was then set alight! I have also personally investigated this incident in loco and I have in my possession a video material about this equally heinous case. Like Akubetus, Kayeya, then a chef at the Ogongo Agricultural College, was also accused of being a “puppet”. His wife and mother were murdered simply because the brave women tried to verbally “defend this dog”!
Soon after the mini-massacre members of SA-controlled armed formation appeared and in an ensuing hot pursuit the two executioners were themselves shot dead in shootout a few kilometers north of the murder scene.
9. Common Cause
It had been common cause in Ovamboland at the time that the alleged “puppets” were either summarily executed or were abducted into southern Angola. There are numerous incidents of this nature that could be cited. Moreover, the aforementioned PLAN fighter Stefanus Nghifikwa had also testified in the Supreme Court of Namibia in 1987 that he had known of occasions where those who had refused to cooperate with SWAPO had been brutally murdered. PLAN demolition cadre Leonard Sheehama also had testified in the Ondangwa Magistrate’s Court that he had received orders from, among others, Nujoma to eliminate “puppets”, including a certain Matheus Hamukoto and CDA President Reverend Peter Kalangula.
The above testimonies by Stefanus Nghifikwa and the late Leonard Sheehama have an alibi elsewhere. According to the ex-SWAPO detainees, PLAN Commander-in-Chief Nujoma and his henchmen “even went to an extent of unilaterally drawing up a so-called Twelve Point Order Circular of 1981.” In terms of the lethal Circular, the following “offences” were punishable by firing squad of any PLAN combatant who:
(1) failed to report to his superior about the enemy activities in the area of his operation so that prompt action could be taken;
(2) endangered the security of his unit by his actions;
(3) fails in executing his assigned mission;
(4) threw away or lost in combat in one way or the other, without relevant reasons, his combat outfit;
(5) failed after combat to report back at the assembly point;
(6) instigated others not to execute orders given to them by their seniors;
(7) refused to execute orders from his direct commander;
(8) failed to receive and accommodate people in such a way that these people’s security was endangered;
(9) destroyed or incapacitated PLAN properties;
(10) deserted and was found
(11) was captured alive and revealed information; and
(12) misinformed his seniors.
In the face of the above Twelve Orders Circular by PLAN’s Commander-in-Chief Nujoma do you think that individual PLAN commanders and soldiers should be held responsible for any atrocities they might have committed, including the massacres of civilians referred to above? I personally do not believe that a single subordinate PLAN commander and combatant should be held responsible for carrying out Nujoma’s deadly Twelve Orders!
I sincerely hold that, as PLAN Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Nujoma must not run away and or hide from all the above misdeeds. He must own up to them!
1) “Political battles continue”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit. p.334-335
2) ibidem, p. 335
3) “Political battles continue”, Where Others Wavered : The Autobiography of Sam Nujoma, Panaf, 2001, p.337
4) “Beginning of the end of the armed liberation struggle”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit. p.366
5) “The State vs Paulus Andreas and Stephanus Nghifikwa”, Namibia: the Sacred Trust of Civilization: Ideal and Reality, Gamsberg Macmillan, Windhoek, p.249
6) “The State vs Paulus Andreas and Stephanus Nghifikwa”, op.cit. 250
7) “The State vs Paulus Andreas and Stephanus Nghifikwa”, op.cit. 251
8) “Battles on the political front continue”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit. p.380
9) “Battles on the political front continue”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit. p.380
10) “Battles on the political front continue”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit. p.380
11) “Battles on the political front continue”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit. p.380
12) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.254
13) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.254
14) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.255
15) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.255
16) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.254
17) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.253
18) “The State vs Afunde Nghiyolwa”, op.cit. p.252
19) “The State vs Afunde Nghiyolwa”, op.cit. p.252
20) “The State vs Afunde Nghiyolwa”, op.ict. p.252
21) “Political battles continue”, Where Others Wavered : The Autobiography of Sam Nujoma, Panaf, 2001, p.337
22) “Massacre at Oshikuku, 10 March 1982”, Where Others Wavered, op.cit.p.326-327
23) “The State vs Paulus Andreas and Stefanus Nghifikwa”, p.250
24) “The State vs Leonard Sheehama”, op.cit. p.254
25) “A Report to the Namibian People: Historical Account of the SWAPO Spy-Drama”, Breaking the Wall of Silence (BWS), Windhoek, 1997, p.14-15
Note: P. ya Nangoloh is a political analyst and executive director and founder of National Society for Human Rights (NSHR). NSHR is Namibia’s leading human rights monitoring and advocacy organization. Mr. ya Nangoloh can be reached via nshr@iafrica.com.na. This analysis is done in his personal capacity.