Further steps have been taken by the South African government in the implementation of an "internal settlement" for Namibia, through the establishment of the territory's own police force, the South West Africa Police (SWAP).
The South African Police, which up to now has been responsible for policing Namibia, formally relinquished control on 1 April 1981 to the new SWAP force. The SWA Police will remain under the authority of the Administrator General, Danie Hough, and will be directly responsible to him.
The new head of the SWA Police is Major General Dolf Gouws, previously Divisional Commissioner of the South African Police in Namibia. He is one of the first members of the old order to accept a permanent position with the SWAP, and said that a large number of South African Policemen serving in Namibia could be expected to follow suit. The new police force will eventually receive its own uniform, (the SWAP's army equivalent, the SWA Territory Force, already has its own uniform).
According to Maj. Gen. Gouws, the SWAP is "not yet completely independent of the South African Police in the sense that a large number of the policemen currently serving here still belong to the South African Police". He added that the SWAP would continue to seek co-operation and support from South Africa. Policemen would eventually be trained in Namibia and the territory's own police college was under construction, but for the moment, local policemen would continue to be trained in South Africa. Policemen currently serving in Namibia would be given the choice of returning to South Africa, being seconded to the SWAP or joining the new force.
In practice, the paramilitary role of the police in Namibia is unlikely to change and could receive even greater emphasis. The South African Police in the territory have been making an increasingly important contribution to the war against SWAPO as the statistics given elsewhere in this issue indicates.
The new SWA Police force will also further complicate United Nations negotiations for a Namibian settlement. The UN settlement plan endorsed through General Assembly resolution 435 predates the establishment by South Africa of Namibia's own "independent" army South West Africa Territorial Force (SWATF) and police (SWAP).
The formal inauguration of SWAP concludes a process initiated on 1 September 1980, when authority for the South African Police in Namibia, with the exception of the security branch and the national intelligence services, was handed over to the Administrator General.
