There have been strong indications over the past year that the South African regime has plans to separate the Caprivi Strip from the rest of Namibia. The Caprivi area extends eastwards from northern Namibia to the Zambian border. As a highly militarised area providing unique access to Zambia, Botswana and Angola, it is of vital strategic significance to the South African Defence Force (SADF).
Pretoria has already annexed the port and railhead of Walvis Bay, which has also been militarised. Continued South African control over Walvis Bay and the Caprivi area would give the apartheid regime forward bases for its campaign of destabilisation in Southern Africa in the event of Namibian independence.
In December last year, South African military intelligence officers in northern Namibia made it clear to a visiting journalist from the Philadelphia Enquirer that the SADF would 'never give up' the Caprivi. The journalist reported that 'it became clear that the SADF is digging in, making improvements and tightening security.
The Caprivi Strip consists of the Western Caprivi, which is zoned as a nature reserve, ruled directly by the central administration in Windhoek, and the Eastern Caprivi, which has been designated as a bantustan, and nominally ruled by a 'Representative Authority'. However, as a result of resistance within the 'Representative Authority', in 1983 the South African Administrator-General for Namibia appointed a Commissioner for the Caprivi to oversee its affairs.
In December 1984 a Constitutional Committee was established under the chairmanship of Lukas Kruger, who in his capacity as chief legal advisor to the South African Department of Cooperation and Development, played a leading role in drawing up the constitutions for some of the regime's nominally 'independent' bantustans. Kruger was charged with drawing up 'a new dispensation' for the region.
The proposed 'constitution' was published in 1985, and drew a storm of protest from people living in the Eastern Caprivi who regarded it as 'an independence declaration'. The document provided for a 'national' flag and anthem and declared that Katima Mulilo, the site of a major SADF base, should be 'the seat of government'.
In November last year, a bill was introduced in the 'National Assembly' of the South African-established Multi-Party Conference administration to amend the constitution of the 'Representative Authority' of the Eastern Caprivi bantustan. The intention was clearly to establish a viable bantustan administration, and the move followed the setting up of a new bantustan party participating in the MPC, the United Democratic Party (UDP). The UDP was formed as a result of a merger between the Caprivi Alliance Party, which, through its affiliation to the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, was participating in the MPC administration, and a faction of the Caprivi African National Union (CANU), led by Mishake Muyongo. Muyongo, who joined SWAPO in the 1960s, left the liberation movement in 1980, committed to establishing the Eastern Caprivi bantustan as an 'independent' state. He negotiated an amnesty with the occupation authorities and returned to Namibia in June 1985. With police and army assistance, he held a series of public meetings in the Caprivi area at which he propagated the idea of secession.
Developments in the Eastern Caprivi bantustan have been accompanied by moves to further extend military control over the population of Western Caprivi. In September, senior military commanders, including a colonel from 32 Battalion, a mercenary unit based in the area, met with the nature conservation officials nominally in control of the area. Colonel Deon Ferreira, the military sector commander, disclosed to the press that he was proposing the removal from the area of all 'illegal' inhabitants not attached to South African military bases. He also wanted stricter control over the only major road leading to the Western Caprivi and compulsory identification documents for 'bona fide residents'.
In December it was announced that a 400 square kilometre 'development zone' for Bushmen' would be established near Bagani, the site of 32 Battalion. The majority of the population of Western Caprivi are classified by the apartheid system as 'Bushmen'. Most of them are attached to an SADF base at Omega and have been recruited from Angola.
A spokesman for the occupation regime declared that there 'would be no forced relocation of Bushmen to the new zone' in the Western Caprivi, but that 'services would be provided only in the area and would be withheld from people outside the area'. Although the zone would be placed under the overall authority of the central administration in Windhoek, all facilities would be controlled and staffed by the SADF.
