Virtually the entire leadership of SWAPO and its sister organisation, the Namibia National Convention (NNC) have been arrested and held incommunicado in gaol under the Terrorism and General Law Amendment Acts, during the past four months. At the same time major constitutional talks have been held in Namibia's capital, Windhoek, and a 34-member delegation of Namibian homeland chiefs, ministers and White government officials have toured the United States, Britain and Europe, as part of a powerful drive by Pretoria to convince the world of its good intentions for Namibia's future.
The wave of arrests and the authorities' clamp-down on security were sparked off two weeks before the opening of the Windhoek talks by the assassination of Chief Filemon Elifas, Chief Minister of Ovamboland, on Saturday 16 August. On the following day, a Sunday, a number of people were arrested in Katutura, outside Windhoek, on charges of disturbing the peace and possessing dangerous weapons. They had been marching through the Ovambo residential section of the township, singing songs, and were followed by a large crowd of young people and children. It appeared that the death of Chief Elifas, a stern and dictatorial figure and a leading exponent of South Africa government policy, had been greeted with joy by many Namibians.
Three days later, on 20 August, it was reported that Herero vigilante squads, followers of Chief Clemens Kapuuo, had broken into homes of top SWAPO officials in Windhoek and Katutura, and handed them over to the police. It was later confirmed that Othniel Kaagunga (SWAPO secretary for Internal Affairs), Aaron Muchimba (SWAPO National Organizer), Axel Johannes (SWAPO National Secretary-General), Elifas Munjaro (SWAPO Secretary for Foreign Affairs), and Alfeus Naruseb (SWAPO Youth League Secretary-General) had been arrested and were being held in Windhoek under Section 22 of the General Law Amendment Act. The home of David Merero, Vice-Chairman of SWAPO, was also reported to have been broken into by twelve men during the early morning of 19 August. He succeeded, however, in escaping while his two children were being questioned, and crossed the border into Botswana.
The following Sunday, four arrests were made when armed mobile units of the South African Police moved in on an NNC meeting in Katutura African Township. Albertus Kangueehi (Chairman of the Namibia National Convention and a teacher from the Martin Luther High School, Okambahe), Pastor Zephaniah Kameeta (NNC Secretary of the Interior and Principal of the Lutheran Paulinum Theological College at Otjimbingwe), Pastor Festus Naholo (Secretary of the Walvis Bay SWAPO branch) and Lazarus Guiteb (Chairman of the Otjiwarongo SWAPO branch and administrator of the Otjiwarongo diocese of the Lutheran Church) were picked up for making what a police spokesman described as "extremely provocative" speeches, and in connection with the Elifas assassination. After arresting the men, the police, according to an observer, broke up the meeting with batons and dogs.
On 11 September, Windhoek police raided the offices occupied by Daniel Tjongarero, Publicity and Information Secretary of the Namibia National Convention and an employee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He had recently planned a demonstration march through Windhoek, ultimately banned by the authorities. Police in camouflage dress sealed off the exits from the offices, while plain clothes men made a systematic search. Daniel Tjongarero told newsmen a few days later that two more people had since been arrested during police raids.
Meanwhile, numerous arrests were being made in Ovamboland, under Proclamation R17/1972 which provides for indefinite detention without trial. Sam Shivute (SWAPO Organizing Secretary in the north) and Rueben Hauwanga (SWAPO secretary for Information and Publicity) were picked up in Oshakati. Other detainees included pastors of the Ovambo - Kavango church, and a 15 year old girl, Marita Matthias, the niece of another detainee, Mrs. Elizabeth Namjembo. SWAPO estimates that the total number of persons detained in Ovamboland, many of whom have yet to be identified, runs into scores. They have been held incommunicado, with relatives, clergymen and lawyers reportedly denied access. Five Namibians were also reported to have been killed in the north by South African security forces, and the homes of three persons, including that of Albertus Kangueehi, burned down. South African police and army reinforcements were flown out to both Windhoek and Ovamboland in preparation for the opening of the constitutional talks on September 1st. Six weeks later, SWAPO claimed that all those arrested in Ovamboland were still being held in detention, although a number of people had been released in Windhoek. By the end of October, no date had yet been set for anyone to appear in court in connection with the assassination of Chief Elifas, and the Deputy Commissioner of Police in South West Africa, Brigadier N. Walters, was unable to make any definite statement on the matter.
THE AGONY OF NAMIBIA'S PRISONS
Theophilus Kalimba, one of the SWAPO members detained in Ovamboland following Chief Elifas's assassination, succeeded in escaping from Oshikango prison on 28 August, 2 days after he was picked up by the police. He managed to jump the border into Angola, from where, on 7 September, he wrote to the SWAPO offices in London. The following extracts from his letter describe the conditions at Oshikango prison:
> "I would like to let you know how I and the others are treated in jail. We are accused of being guilty of killing Filemon Elifas. Our legs and arms are tied, we are hung from the roof and tortured. Sometimes we are hung by the legs, sometimes by the arms, from the roof, and tortured. We are given only a cup of water at 12pm.
The South African government are trying to destroy the Namibians physically and mentally. The people in jail are watched over by soliders so that they do not get a chance to sleep. The soldiers do that in turns. To tell the truth, and I want to tell this as I know by experience, not theory, if the others are being treated in the same way as I was treated for those days I was in jail, then they will die or their mental capacity will be damaged. I cannot really understand what will happen to someone who is forbidden to sleep even half a second day and night. When I was being held at Oshikango, I did not see any of the others, because I was being kept alone in a cell. If the South African Police could get hold of me, I would be shot dead".
