SWAPO's determination to act as a political force inside Namibia, and the difficulties it faces in carrying out this task were vividly illustrated during the visit of the United Nations Secretary-General to Windhoek in August 1983. Shortly after a SWAPO delegation had submitted a statement to the Secretary-General outlining the repressive laws enacted against its members and supporters and asking for their repeal, a SWAPO demonstration was violently broken up by security police wielding pickaxe handles and batons.
The SWAPO statement, presented by the recently elected executive, drew the attention of the Secretary-General to the repressive laws imposed by South Africa which make open political activity impossible for the organisation. Prominent cadres of SWAPO are under severe restriction, the statement said. It asked for the lifting of repressive laws, and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners and the Kassinga detainees. SWAPO combatants taken captive during armed action should be given prisoner-of-war status.
Some 150 SWAPO supporters, bearing placards calling for Namibia's independence and singing freedom songs, assembled outside the Secretary-General's hotel. Within minutes, vans arrived carrying members of the Special Task Force, who began to break up the demonstration with dogs, pickaxe handles and batons. According to one report, some of the police had to be restrained by their superiors, conscious of the presence of members of the international press.
SWAPO's political activities inside Namibia have been increasingly curtailed over the years through detentions, bans and harassment of its members. During 1979, SWAPO's office in Windhoek was repeatedly raided and vandalised by extremist white groups and police, its files confiscated, and its workers detained. The office was finally forced to close, and SWAPO representatives were warned by the security police against attempts to reopen it. As South Africa introduced new repressive laws in Namibia (Proclamations AG 9 of 1977 and AG 26 of 1978), scores of SWAPO leaders and supporters were detained. Many were placed under restriction orders following their release, which prohibited them from participating in political activities.
South Africa's efforts to stamp out all political activities by SWAPO has had only limited success, however. The movement's support amongst black Namibians has been shown in mass rallies, strikes and protests despite the risk of arrest. In May 1981, 2,500 people attended a SWAPO rally in Windhoek to commemorate the Kassinga massacre, while over 130 school pupils boycotted classes and marched through the black township near Keetmanshoop. In the Damara area, pupils were reported to have boycotted classes and sung freedom songs on Kassinga Day.
The promulgation of the Prohibition and Notification of Meetings Act in December 1981 virtually banned SWAPO from holding meetings, since it prohibited meetings by any organisation advocating the overthrow of the existing order.
Nevertheless, the newly elected SWAPO leadership inside Namibia is clearly determined to continue and intensify the liberation movement's political work. At a meeting in June 1983 which was attended by representatives from all the regions of the country, the leadership reviewed SWAPO's political work in the light of the current situation in Namibia and the international climate. After talks in Botswana with a SWAPO delegation led by President Nujoma, the leadership issued a statement calling on the Administrator-General to agree to direct talks which would lead to the immediate implementation of the United Nations Independence Plan and the signing of a ceasefire. The statement condemned the linking of Namibian independence to the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola, and stressed that South Africa had no right to impose a neocolonial solution on Namibia by establishing the State Council.
