An urgent application was brought before the Windhoek Supreme Court on 27 October for an interdict against the South African Ministers of Police and Defence, seeking the immediate release from detention of three men from Ovamboland. The action was brought by the wives of the three men after their husbands disappeared without trace in Ovamboland.
The affidavits presented to the Judge President, Justice F.H. Badenhorst, hint that the men may be dead. The men are Johannes NAKAWA, Mathias ASHIPEMBE and Matheus NAHANGA. Mrs Rachel Nakawa said in her affidavit that on 2 June 1979, two men armed with FN rifles had knocked on her door saying they were freedom fighters and needed water. They then broke down the door. She could see that they were members of the South African Police. Four other men stood outside the house. Her house was searched and her husband was taken away in an anti-landmine vehicle. Mrs Nakawa said the police and security police at Oshakati had denied that they had arrested her husband or knew of his whereabouts, but referred her to the SA Defence Force. After a number of calls she was informed that her husband was being held at Oshakati camp and that his condition was good. When she went back a week later however, she was told he had not been arrested and was not being held by the army. Since then she had heard no news of her husband and did not know whether he was dead or alive. Mr Nakawa was held four years ago for a year without trial and again in 1978 for five months without trial, she said. (see FOCUS 1, p.11, 17, p.11)
Mrs. Rauha Ashipembe said her husband had been due to meet her at Strijdom airport on 17 May on her return from Germany, but failed to get there. The last time anyone had seen her husband was on 14 May when he left for Windhoek from Oluno in Ovamboland to meet her. Mrs Ashipembe and her sister Willibaltine Mupupa, stated that they had been detained under Proclamation AG 9 for about a month by the security police at Oshakati after they had inquired about the whereabouts of her husband. Mr Ashipembe was apparently in poor health after a car accident, at the time of his disappearance.
The third application was brought by Mrs Maria Jonas, alleging that her husband, Mr Matheus Nahanga, had disappeared on 4 May 1979 when he had set out on foot from their home in Ondombe to fetch work references from his previous employer at Tsumeb. Information she received indicated that he might have been detained by the Police or the Defence Force on 14 May at the Oshivello border post.
Mr Sam Maritz, for the respondents, said the police and Defence Force authorities had informed the applicants that they had not detained the men and did not know their whereabouts. The hearing was adjourned. (WA 24/29.10.79; WO 27.10.79)
