Chief Kapuuo's death on 27 March came as the culmination of several weeks of disturbances and fierce street battles between rival political groups in the black township of Katutura, outside Windhoek. Over the period 28 February to 8 March, in particular, 14 people were killed and many seriously injured. The fact that the clashes have involved supporters of SWAPO (including many Ovambo-speaking migrant workers) and the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) (mainly Herero followers of Chief Kapuuo), has been used by South African spokesmen as indicating that they are "tribal" in origin. In fact, there is evidence to support SWAPO's claim that the South African authorities, by failing to intervene decisively and by sanctioning the distribution of firearms to DTA supporters, have been responsible for prolonging the violence. It is also clear that the clashes have been aggravated by underlying economic problems and grievances arising out of the contract labour system, under which thousands of migrant workers from the north of Namibia, mainly Ovamboland, regularly travel south to seek employment.
The violence started on the night of 28 February, when two Ovambo men, (one of them a SWAPO member, Hennock Angula), were killed, and 41 people injured in street clashes in Katutura. Both SWAPO and the DTA had been holding meetings in the area and according to one report, clashes were sparked off when a fake message, purporting to come from SWAPO, was discovered in the DTA meeting-place. Police used teargas and, according to one SWAPO supporter, "turned the search-lights mounted on top of the riot vans into the eyes of the SWAPO fighters", temporarily blinding them.
A month before the trouble erupted, in fact, the Windhoek municipal authorities had been predicting a confrontation between rival groups of work-seekers. Black unemployment, always an endemic feature of South African's bantustan policy, has increased sharply as the armed struggle in northern Namibia has developed and business confidence in the country's future has fallen. Mr. Attie Arnold, Windhoek's Town Clerk, revealed at the end of January that unemployment among established black Windhoek residents had risen from 3% to 12% and now affected about 1,600 people. On top of this, recent moves by the SWA Administrator General, Justice Steyn, to abolish certain aspects of influx control, have meant that black work-seekers from the homelands have been able to migrate to Windhoek and other white urban centres in search of jobs in far greater numbers than ever before. Many of these unemployed have been staying illegally in the Ovambo contract workers' hostel in Windhoek or as illegal lodgers in Katutura. The police have reported a rising crime rate, particularly incidents of petty theft and house-breaking, while steps have been taken by the municipal authorities to issue firearms to their employees at the Ovambo hostel and elsewhere, for their own "protection".
A circular from the Swakopmund Municipality to local employers, appealing for their co-operation in reducing tension and hostility among the unemployed is a revealing pointer to the roots of the problem. The circular warns of imminent food shortages, hardship and riots in the black townships. Dated 2 February 1978, it reveals that there are already more than 1,000 unemployed blacks in Swakopmund, the majority being recent arrivals from Ovamboland. Employers are exhorted to register all their workers, including casual staff, to report all vacancies, and at all costs to resist the temptation to reduce salary bills by sacking workers and employing others at lower rates.
In Windhoek, hostilities may have been further aggravated by private sector employers blaming rising unemployment on the liberation movement and telling workseekers to "go look for work at SWAPO".
Clashes continued during the first week of March, particularly over the weekend 4/5 March when, according to SWAPO members, they were sparked off by an attack on a group of SWAPO workers waiting at a bus stop, by DTA supporters. 12 more deaths followed, including that of Julius Kambirongo, a former policeman and chief aide to Clemens Kapuuo. Like other members of the chief's large personal bodyguard, he was armed and defended himself with a shotgun. SWAPO workers interviewed by the Windhoek Advertiser stated that reinforcements of DTA supporters had been brought into Windhoek by truck from the Herero homeland to take part in the fighting, at Chief Kapuuo's instigation and with covert assistance from the police. By 6 March the disturbances had spread to other parts of the country with three deaths at Okakarara, after Herero workers had attacked Ovambo-speaking employees of the Department of Water Affairs.
Over the two days Monday and Tuesday, 6/7 March, a general strike took place in Windhoek, focussed on the Ovambo contract workers' hostel where many residents are SWAPO supporters. About 2,000 of the 4,158 Ovambos registered at the hostel stayed away from work, and several large industries and businesses in the city reported that attendance was down to 40%. It is clear from press reports and the statements of the strikers themselves that the action was a direct response to the violent situation that had developed over the previous few days and was intended to force the authorities to take effective action to diffuse the tension. The strikers' demands, as communicated to Steyn when he visited the hostel on 7 March, included the immediate return to their homes of those Hereros who had been brought into the city to take part in the fighting; the immediate release of hostel residents arrested for carrying dangerous weapons; the elimination of police bias against Ovambos; the State hospital, which had allegedly been refusing treatment to hostel residents, to admit all those injured in the fighting; all those responsible for the killings to be arrested and tried; and an assurance that no strikers would be dismissed from their jobs. The Windhoek Advertiser commented that it was "significant that strikers had no complaints about salary or even working conditions, but merely stayed in the compound because they felt 'it would cause less bloodshed'." In a press statement on 13 March, the Minister responsible for the United Evangelical Church's mission to migrant workers, Parson Gerson Max, confirmed that the workers' action did not constitute a strike in the conventional sense but warned that the root problems could only be solved by the provision of equal job opportunities and the founding of a workers' union.
