At least 21, and possibly as many as 40 members and supporters of SWAPO were arrested by the South African police in Namibia in the wake of the assassination of Chief Clemens Kapuuo on 27 March. In a number of statements issued since the Chief's death, SWAPO spokesmen have voiced their fears of reprisals against the liberation movement, and have accused the South African authorities of deliberately provoking violence between rival political parties and groups. Contingents of police reinforcements have been arriving in Windhoek from South Africa since the beginning of March, while press reports have made it clear that certain elements of the Namibian civilian population, notably supporters of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance and Herero followers of Chief Kapuuo, have been obtaining firearms from official sources.
Chief Kapuuo, leader of the Herero delegation to the Turnhalle constitutional conference and President of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance subsequently formed by participants in the talks, was shot by two unknown assailants in the early evening of Monday 27 March, a public holiday. He was speaking to Herero colleagues in the back yard of his general store in Katutura, outside Windhoek, when the attack occurred. He was taken to hospital by the police but died before or shortly after arrival.
Although SWAPO was immediately blamed for Kapuuo's murder by Brigadier Victor Verster, the Divisional Commissioner of Police in Windhoek, and by other spokesmen for the South African government, little or no concrete evidence appears to have been produced by the authorities as to the killers' identity. In a statement in Windhoek on 28 March, SWAPO's Secretary for Publicity and Information, Mokganedi Thhabanello, pointed out that besides the chief, two other Herero-speaking men and 23 Ovambo-speaking men had died in a series of violent clashes in Katutura and elsewhere since the end of February. SWAPO felt that these deaths were not necessary at all, especially at such a time of crisis when everybody was in search of a peaceful settlement in Namibia. No single arrest had been made with regard to these murders and SWAPO called for the appointment of "a sincere and honest judicial commission of inquiry" to establish the real causes.
On 4 April, SWAPO's Administrative Secretary, Axel Johannes, was arrested in Windhoek and detained under the Terrorism Act. Johannes was released from two years in prison and detention without charge, during which he is believed to have suffered police torture, in 1977.
A number of other SWAPO members and officials were arrested in Windhoek and elsewhere in the course of the next few days. 13 people, including Bernadus Petrus, (elected Deputy Secretary for Youth at the second National Congress of the SWAPO Youth League at the end of March, and previously held under the Terrorism Act for 9 weeks from December 1977) and Jason Angula, Secretary for Labour, were released after several hours of questioning on Kapuuo's assassination. Others who were kept in detention included Johannes Nampala, David Koronelius, Abraham Nghilifa, Elias Nahisihange, Sakaria Johannes, Tiofelus Penasha, Simon Tomas, Maikel Monjoko, Robetius Barnabus, Maria Namene, Jeremiah Asino, David Shapaka and Festus (name incomplete), (all detained in Windhoek); Malakia Mureni and David Ausika (chairperson of SWAPO's Kavango Branch) (both arrested in Rundu and detained in Tsumeb); Engel A. Gariseb (Branch Chairperson), Anna Kayele (SWAPO Women's Branch) and Helena Uwegaes (Youth Chairperson) (all arrested in Grootfontein and detained in Tsumeb).
According to SWAPO, its Regional Chairman in the north of Namibia Skinny Hilundwa, narrowly escaped assassination on 3 April when his son apprehended an armed member of the Ovambo Battalion of the South Africa Defence Force outside his window. The National Treasurer, Tauno Hatuikulipi, was also menaced by a "group of gangsters" who tried to enter his house. The Anglican Vicar General in Namibia, Father Ed Morrow, has reported receiving a particularly large number of threatening and abusive telephone calls since fighting first started in Katutura.
More deaths occurred on 8 April, when Herero-speaking members of Chief Kapuuo's funeral cortege, armed with machine guns, opened fire on crowds in the vicinity of the Ovambo migrant workers hostel in Windhoek. According to the Windhoek Advertiser, the funeral procession was on its way to join the main road to Okahandja, where the burial service was to be held, when it was "attacked by stone-throwing Ovambo-speaking citizens" near the precincts of the hostel. The mourners retaliated with gunfire, killing four people and wounding 12. Police units were then called in with teargas canisters. Closearm fighting between Hereros and Ovambos was also reported. According to SWAPO, six SWAPO members in all were killed – Nikodemus Shatimwene, Mateus Nangolo, Isaac Iitembu, Phillemon Aamalia and two others.
Asked to comment on the fact that Chief Kapuuo's followers were in possession of guns – including R-3 automatic assault rifles – Brigadier Verster said "he was aware that Bantu Affairs, now the Department of Plural Relations, did hand firearms to a number of Hereros". The Criminal Investigation Department in Windhoek have since denied that the guns involved were automatic. The Herero-speaking mourners concerned had, the CID stated, used ordinary .303 rifles, issued "a long time ago" by the Department of Plural Relations. As far as the CID knew, the R-3 automatic assault rifle was only in the possession of Home Guards or black members of the Defence force units.
STOP PRESS On 18 April, sweeping emergency powers of detention were introduced in Namibia by the SWA Administrator General. The legislation provides Justice Steyn with "dictatorial" powers of arrest and indefinite detention of persons whose "actions promote violence or intimidation".
On 20 April, PETER MANNING, a SWAPO member who has been in detention since his arrest in January this year, was formally discharged in the Windhoek Supreme Court. Charges under the Official Secrets Act, and alternate charges under the Terrorism Act, were dropped. On 17 April, NICHOLAS HAYSOM, who had been subpoenaed to give evidence on his relationship with Manning, was sentenced to one year's imprisonment.
