South Africa has consolidated its occupation of Namibia in a number of significant ways since the mass detentions of SWAPO's leadership at the end of April, and the installation of a National Assembly dominated by the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), signalled what appears to be an irretrievable breakdown in international negotiations over the territory's future. In particular, in an operation which has received comparatively little attention in the British press, several thousand South African troops have been sent into Namibia to reinforce the existing force of (according to SWAPO estimates) up to 60,000 men. This troop build-up, which continues the pattern set during the run-up to the December 1978 elections in Namibia, has been accompanied by renewed South African ground and air attacks into southern Angola. South Africa is now reported to be spending one million rand a day on the war in Namibia.
As reported in FOCUS 22 (p.15), martial law was extended as far south as Windhoek on 10 May and has since been further reinforced by the SWA Administrator General Justice M Steyn. Press reports from Windhoek at this time described hundreds of South African military trucks, troop carriers and armoured vehicles moving through the city en route to the north, in convoys often "several miles" long. Between 8,000 and 10,000 Citizen Force reservists are reported to have been mobilised in South Africa for deployment in Namibia.
Many of these reservists, having been called up for what they understood to be a three week training exercise, subsequently discovered that this had been extended to three months active service in the 'operational area'.
The SA Government's Defence White Paper, tabled in Parliament at the beginning of April, stated that it was intended to employ increased numbers of national servicemen in Namibia. In order to maintain the present force level in Namibia, however, the call-up of Citizen Force and Commando units would have to continue, though on a smaller scale than before.
Speaking in response to a question in the SA Parliament in March this year, Mr. P. W. Botha revealed that approximately 2,500 men of the 76 Citizen Force and Commando platoons had been called up as "election protection teams" in December 1978.
In April, SWAPO President Mr. Sam Nujoma stated that South Africa was flying troops into Namibia on a daily basis in preparation for an imminent invasion of Angola — a claim described in Pretoria as "nonsensical propaganda".
Barely a week after the SA authorities' extension of martial law in Namibia, however, the Angolan Defence Ministry announced that South African troops had launched a new ground, armoured and airforce attack into south-east Angola, beginning on 19 May. Heavy artillery bombarded the border town of Kalai while Mirage fighter bombers attacked frontier guard positions. A strong infantry and armoured car column later crossed the border into the area while a second similar column headed towards the Angolan village of Luengue. (Both on this and other occasions, the South Africans have maintained that such attacks are in fact carried out by the Angolan rebel organization, UNITA).
Violations of the Angolan border have continued. On 11 June, for example, a squadron of SA Mirage fighter bombers were reported to have bombed the village of Jumbe in Cunene province, killing three civilians and destroying several vehicles and equipment belonging to the Angolan Ministry of Construction and Housing, together with a people's shop. A communique from the Angolan Defence Ministry added that South African forces were "intensifying their provocative actions by massing troops on the border, stepping up their violations of our air space, and bombing defenceless villages and also destroying our people's property".
Since the reported enlargement of a military airfield at Ondangwa in northern Ovamboland to accommodate jet fighters previously based at Grootfontein, two Mirage quadrons have been stationed on Namibia's northern border.
Inside Namibia itself, there have been indications that South Africa's war against SWAPO's guerilla forces is entering a new and more intense phase. The London Financial Times, commenting on the SA troop build-up apparent in May, suggested that it could "herald a major motorised infantry sweep through the operational area in northern Namibia ... combined with selective cross-border raids". More than 40 farms in the northern cattle ranching area have been given military protection by the SADF following the murder of a number of white farmers and civilians. While the general thrust of SA press reports and official statements is intended to give the impression that the guerillas concentrate their energies on hit-and-run attacks on unarmed civilians, the SA Minister of Police and Prisons Mr. Louis Le Grange has revealingly stated that SWAPO's forces are "no longer running away as was the case in the past, but (are) holding their ground to put up a fight".
Other indications of the expansion of the war include:
- the development of specialised counter insurgency units in the operational area. Military correspondents were taken in June to visit troops of the SWA Specialist Unit, established in 1977 but to date kept under wraps by the SADF. The Specialist Unit, made up of tracking and infantry troops drawn from both national servicemen and Permanent Force members, and "psychologically and physically handpicked", occupies a training base at Oshivelo, a border post near the Etosha Pan between Ovamboland and the 'white' area of Namibia. The unit combines horsemen, tracker, patrol and mine detection dogs, with specially adapted 350 cc scrambler motor cycles to track down and confront guerillas. The noise of the motor cycles is said to be a distinct advantage in bush conditions. According to the unit's training officer, "the sound of a motorcycle or a group of them in the bush can be very confusing. It is difficult to tell from which direction the bikes are coming and the speed with which the men arrive at a contact is an advantage. The bikes appear and shooting starts before you know where you are". About 90% of the men in the unit are drawn from urban areas of South Africa where most of them own their own powerful motorcycles; all are trained in bushcraft and survival techniques for deployment in difficult terrain for several days at a time with no logistical support. Apart from the their specialised training all the men are infantry men armed with the latest R-4 lightweight automatic rifles developed by the SADF. These 5.65 mm calibre submachine guns, which superficially resemble an AK47, fire far more rounds, and at a faster rate, than their predecessor the R-3.
- Increased use is being made of black Namibian soldiers and policemen in security and counter insurgency operations. Extensive recruiting drives have been undertaken to strengthen the "multi-ethnic" 41 Battalion formed in Namibia in 1977 as a part of the embryo "SWA National Army". The South African government's continuing commitment to the development of a separate defence force for Namibia organised on tribal lines is apparent from the Defence White Paper, which records that "much progress has already been made in the emancipation of SWA Command from the SA Army, particularly in the respect of finance, force planning and force development". Gen. J. Geldenhuys, the Commander of the SA army in Namibia whose appointment in August 1977 precipitated the major reorganization in the army command structure referred to in the White Paper has confirmed that black Namibian commandos have been used operationally for the first time. They had done duty in the Eastern Caprivi.
In March, seven black policemen became the first to qualify as officers in the territory following an intensive six week training course in Windhoek's Central Police Station. They were promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Col. A. Drotsche, the Police Commissioner in Namibia, indicated however that no immediate expansion of such officer training programmes could be expected. (The "SWA National Army" too, will continue to be officered by members of the SADF for the time being; the highest rank among Namibians being that of sergeant.)
- The SA Prime Minister told the House of Assembly in May that additional patrols were being conducted in Namibia by the SA Police and SADF in urban areas and police foot patrols had been introduced in residential areas for the protection of civilians. All army commandos had drawn up contingency plans and had ear-marked forces to support the SA Police when necessary. The PM added that "distinguished civilians" in Ovamboland, such as ministers and senior chiefs, were being provided with trained special constables as bodyguards, while their kraals were continually guarded by units of special constables and fenced off with safety hedges.
- The SWA Attorney General announced in April that it had been decided not to enforce the 90 km/hour speed limit on the roads between Otavi, Kombat and Grootfontein, and the main Tsumeb-Grootfontein road, in view of the danger of guerilla attacks. Drivers of South African Railways luxury buses have been instructed to avoid travelling via Tsumeb altogether.
- The construction of all-weather roads in the north of Namibia is being pressed ahead. The first 101 km section of a road linking the major Grootfontein military base with Rundu on the Namibia-Angola border is currently under construction at a cost of R17 million. Described as of extremely high standard, the road will eventually cost an estimated R45 million and is intended to open up the north-east of the territory, ultimately connecting with neighbouring states via the Caprivi Strip.
