A company strength element of South African Naval Marines will in future be kept continuously deployed in northern Namibia, as a means of giving the men practical experience of counter-insurgency techniques.
This decision by the South African Navy follows the completion of three months service in the northern Namibian border region by a company strength contingent of the Marines — the first to be sent to the operational area. The men, whose arrival in Namibia at the end of December 1980 was reported in FOCUS 33 p.6, "took over full responsibility for protecting Oshakati without any casualties". They had previously been specially trained by members of the SA army in internal security duties normally carried out by land-based infantry men.
The decision to keep members of the Marines continuously deployed in the operational area means an annual addition to harbour protection of "at least two marine companies which are fully trained and have undergone a baptism of fire", according to Vice-Admiral Edwards, Chief of the SA Navy.
The first group of national servicemen to be conscripted into the SWA Territory Force in Namibia under South Africa's new programme of compulsory military service for all races, were due to complete their basic training in April. They will remain until the end of 1981 at the Rooikop military base in Walvis Bay for infantry and artillery training and service in armoured car units. Most of the training is being carried out by South African Defence Force personnel. They are then due to be posted to units of the SWA Territory Force for the second half of their two years' compulsory service.
The first intake of national servicemen was called up in January 1981. Whites comprise about 20% of the intake while the black conscripts are drawn from the Coloured, Nama and Damara 'population groups'. The intake was posted to the 2 SA Infantry Battalion and split into three companies — including "a leader group with a higher education standard", mainly consisting of whites, and one consisting of conscripts with education of below Standard 8, and all black.
While the companies displayed a certain degree of racial mixing, the commanding officer of the intake, Commandant Frans van den Berg, stated that "when it comes to the men's living quarters and who they associate with socially, we force neither integration nor segregation. We leave it up to them". Journalists reported that the white and black conscripts were living in separate tents and seating themselves at separate tables in the canteen.
