The virtual breakdown of medical services and the rapid growth of squatter camps in the Ovambo region in northern Namibia illustrate the devastating effect of South Africa's military occupation of the territory. In a series of reports following a visit to the area in October 1982, two reporters from the Windhoek Advertiser described the state of the health services as critical and desperate, and concluded that the growth of slums, in the form of squatter camps around Oshakati and Ondangwa, was the greatest indication of the desperation of the Ovambo people for an end to the war.
There are five hospitals in Ovambo, providing approximately 1850 beds for a population of over 500,000. Only one hospital, at Oshakati, is fully equipped and all operations are performed there. Three new hospitals, with a total of 190 beds, are nearing completion. The hospital provision is, according to the reporters, totally inadequate to cope with the people's needs in an area torn by war. Tens of people are injured daily through shooting incidents, cross-fire and land mine explosions. Medical personnel cannot travel to outlying regions because of the war, and preventative medicine has come to a standstill. Most of the hospitals are inaccessible to the population. There is no public transport, private vehicles are not permitted on the road after dusk, and the existing air ambulance is overburdened.
The reporters described the conditions at two hospitals, Onandjokwe and Engela. Onandjokwe hospital, run by Finnish missionaries, has 246 registered beds but accommodates between 400 and 500 patients at a time. They lie on the floors, on verandahs and under trees. In addition, the hospital handles 300 to 500 outpatients a day. There are only two doctors, who are clearly unable to cope with the load. Many Finnish missionaries have been forced to leave Namibia as a results of South Africa's refusal to renew their visas or residence permits. Military doctors seconded from the South African Defence Force, whose contribution has been used by South Africa to publicise its humanitarian image, apparently are seldom in Ovambo for more than a few months, and devote a lot of their effort to military activities.
The situation at Engela hospital, a mission hospital controlled by the Evangelical Lutheran Ovambokavango Church (ELOK) and subsidised by the Ovambo second tier authorities, appears even worse. Senior hospital personnel told the reporters that it was almost impossible to keep control of the number of patients that had to be seen per day. About 300 were accommodated and the number of outpatients varied between 200 and 400 a day. At the time of the reporters' visit in late October 1982, the hospital had not been attended by a qualified doctor for two months. There was only one ambulance, which took the most serious cases to Oshakati hospital about 100 kms away. The hospital's dispensary consisted of a kitchen fridge which had been out of use for two months because of the lack of electricity. The hospital was using water which was from a dam and was seldom boiled. There were few beds, and most of the patients were crowded on the floors.
