South African plans to recruit Namibians for military service on tribal lines are now being put into practice in the southern part of the country, and in particular, among the Rehoboth Basters. Embryonic "homeland" armies have been in existence in the northern bantustans of Kavango and Ovambo for nearly a year, and could presumably be incorporated into plans to set up a nation-wide "all race army". About 500 Ovambos and Kavangos are now serving in the Permanent Force. According to SWAPO, General Malan, Chief of the South African Army, visited Namibia towards the end of 1976 to promote such an indigenous defence force, which seems intended to lend credibility to attempts to confer independence upon the territory on an ethnic basis. The military units being set up in the homelands, however, are ultimately controlled by the South African armed forces.
In November 1976, around 50 Basters began training near Rehoboth under South African Defence Force and white commando instructors, as the nucleus of a Baster Commando unit. The first intake, who were reported to be equipped with fatigue uniforms and RI rifles, were mostly young men, but included at least one Baster who had served in the South African Army during World War II. The unit, whose members are to receive training, equipment and wages on a par with whites, is expected to reach company strength — 120 men — in the first quarter of 1977.
The possibility of recruiting similar defence units from the Coloureds, Hereros, Namas, and Damaras is also under consideration. (A South African coloured infantry unit, the Cape Corps, has been actively deployed in the northern Namibian operational zone since at least August 1976. — for the first time since World War I. SWAPO has also alleged that black troops from the Transkei are being used in Namibia). About 120 Namas attended a meeting in Gibeon at the beginning of December addressed by Colonel Daan de Villiers, Commandant of Commando Group 2B in the South African Defence Force, and Commandant Jurie Swanepoel of SWA Command Headquarters, on the possibility of starting a military unit for the Namas. Sources close to SWAPO have reported that Namibians are being trained at a base near Okahandja as part of the same movement.
