The South African government's claims that SWAPO's military capability has been significantly weakened by SADF action, and that guerillas of the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) inside Namibia are suffering from food shortages, isolated and cut off from command and base, are nevertheless contradicted by other events and statements. Gen. Lloyd explained to journalists at Oshakati for example that, since SWAPO was allowed by the Angolan government and armed forces to operate in the south of Angola, SWAPO was "in practical terms... in control of regions in the south of Angola". In other contexts, South African government propaganda regularly portrays Dr Jonas Savimbi's UNITA forces as being in control of anything up to one-third or even half of Angola, centering on the southeastern province of Kuando-Kubango.
Such claims have been questioned even by sources sympathetic to UNITA. An American journalist, Richard Harwood of the Washington Post, who spent several weeks with UNITA in June 1981, admitted that Savimbi's claims to have "liberated" most of the province of Kuando Kubango only referred to an area containing 2 per cent of Angola's population. The three main towns in the northern part of the province, Menongwe, Cuito-Cuanavale and Gago Coutinho were under the control of the Angolan government, he confirmed. Harwood also conceded that UNITA was heavily dependent on South Africa, receiving regular supplies from South African bases in Namibia. These were transported by UNITA-operated lorries using South African supplies of diesel fuel. Harwood visited the town of Mavinga in southern Angola which, according to his report, was captured by UNITA in September 1980. The Angolan Defence Ministry confirmed that Mavinga had been taken "by the South Africans" mainly because it had an airstrip.
