Incidents in Ovamboland during December illustrate the hostile and restrictive environment in which SWAPO is obliged to operate inside Namibia, despite the SWAPO Administrator General's recent relaxation of the laws governing the holding of public meetings.
A SWAPO public rally held under Justice Steyn's new dispensation at Oluno, the black township of Ondangua, on 16 December was broken up by the police using teargas canisters. According to SWAPO about 8,000 people attended the rally, at which speakers included Axel Johannes (SWAPO Regional Secretary in Windhoek) and Martha Ford (Secretary of the SWAPO Women's Council), despite road blocks and weapon searches set up by the South African army on roads leading to Oluno. The police had also decided at the last moment to switch the chosen site for the meeting to a venue close to the camp of the Ovambo Army Unit.
In a statement issued by its National Executive in Windhoek, SWAPO alleged that a group of about 20 plainclothes members of the Ovambo tribal police and supporters of the Turnhalle, calling themselves "Ndjoba's fist" after the Chief Minister of the Ovamboland, and armed with thorny palm branches, hand grenades and rifles, started abusing the audience, throwing sand among the crowd and beating people indiscriminately. (The Ovambo tribal authorities subsequently admitted that there had been assaults, but maintained that attacks on the bantustan system, or "traditional leadership", such as those made by the SWAPO speakers at the rally, could be expected to provoke a "backlash")
At one stage the SWAPO National Treasurer, Tauno Hatuikulipi, approached a South African police officer seated with other police in seven anti-landmine vehicles behind the speaker's platform, requesting him to search the trouble-makers for weapons. The officer was reported to have replied that SWAPO were in no position to complain because they were responsible for laying landmines.
SWAPO then stated that the tribal police ran back to the nearby Ovambo Army camp and returned armed and in full military dress. Shortly after the fifth speaker, the South African police shot at the crowd with teargas while the tribal police charged with palm branches, batons and rifle butts. Several shots were fired over the heads of the dispersing audience. A number of people were injured in the ensuing commotion, property was damaged and SWAPO shirts confiscated. The SWAPO leaders were then warned by the police that the police could not guarantee their safety and they were asked to leave the area in their own interest.
Attacks on SWAPO meetings and events are not new. In the south of the country, a SWAPO rally in Katutura to celebrate Namibia Day on 28 August 1977 was attacked in what appears to have been a campaign of officially inspired violence by Herero supporters of Chief Clemens Kapuuo. A band of around 100 Hereros armed with sticks and clubs were reported to have arrived at the sportsground outside Windhoek where the rally was being held, closed the gates and thrown rocks and stones over the fence at the SWAPO supporters. An eye witness reported that policemen present at the scene did not attempt to intervene until the fighting had died down and become sporadic. Similar incidents reportedly occurred at Namibia Day celebrations in Tsumeb, Walvis Bay and Luderitz.
