Apartheid’s Transnational Soldiers: The Case of Black Namibian Soldiers in South Africa’s Former Security Forces

Abstract

Histories of southern Africa’s liberation struggles have been primarily written in the frame of the nation and have thus largely neglected the significant role played by transnational and inter-regional connections in shaping those struggles. In this article, I explore the complex and seemingly paradoxical dynamics of ‘national liberation’ through the case of black Namibians who were recruited into the South West African Territorial Force (SWATF), and the South African police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet, during Namibia’s war for independence. I argue that the initially temporary ‘alliances’ between these transnational soldiers and South Africa’s security forces assumed a degree of permanence in the form of new and enduring military identities and loyalties. These often contradictory identities and loyalties have remained salient in influencing the history and politics of post-independence Namibia, as ex-SWATF and ex-Koevoet members have continued to invoke them in attempts to claim full citizen and war-veteran status in Namibia and South Africa. By analysing the post-war politics and historical narratives of two veterans’ organisations of former SWATF and Koevoet members, I bring into focus the transnational character of Namibia’s liberation struggle and the painful legacies of the conflict’s internalisation along familial, ethnic, racial and ideological lines.

Notes

¹ E. Muraranganda, ‘Geingob Blows Off Koevoet Pension Money Pleas’, Namibian Sun, Windhoek, 23 April 2015, available at https://www.namibiansun.com/news/geingob-blows-off-koevoet-pension-money-pleas, retrieved 11 November 2015.

² Before independence, the official name of the movement was ‘South West Africa People’s Organisation’ (SWAPO), later changed to ‘SWAPO of Namibia’ and again to ‘Swapo Party’. In this article, I use ‘SWAPO’ throughout.

³ On the complicated and shifting relations between UNITA and SWAPO, see V.A. Shigwedha, ‘The Relationship Between UNITA and SWAPO: Allies and Adversaries’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 40, 6 (2014), pp. 1275–87.

⁴ L. White and M. Larmer, ‘Introduction: Mobile Soldiers and the Un-National Liberation of Southern Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 40, 6 (2014), p. 1272.

⁵ See, for example, H. Thörn, ‘Liberation Struggles in Southern Africa and the Emergence of a Global Civil Society’, in C. Saunders (ed.), Documenting Liberation Struggles in Southern Africa – Select Papers from the Nordic Africa Documentation Project Workshop, 26–27 November 2009, Pretoria, South Africa (Uppsala, Nordic Africa Institute, 2010), pp. 11–23; C. Saunders, ‘Transnational Connections and Mobilization in Liberation Struggles: the Namibian Case’ (unpublished paper, Paris, 2015). For non-military aspects of liberation movements in exile, see, for example, H. Macmillan, The Lusaka Years: The ANC in Exile in Zambia, 1963–1994 (Johannesburg, Jacana Media, 2013), and L. White, The Assassination of Herbert Chitepo: Texts and Politics in Zimbabwe (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2003).

⁶ See, for example, M. Larmer, ‘Local Conflicts in a Transnational War: The Katangese Gendarmes and the Shaba Wars of 1977–78’, Cold War History, 13, 1 (2013), pp. 89–108; N. Rousseau, ‘Counter-Revolutionary Warfare: The Soweto Intelligence Unit and Southern Itineraries’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 40, 6 (2014), pp. 1343–61.

⁷ N. Arielli and B. Collins, ‘Introduction: Transnational Military Service since the Eighteenth Century’, in N. Arielli and B. Collins (eds), Transnational Soldiers: Foreign Military Enlistment in the Modern Era (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), p. 4.

⁸ In my research project, narratives are taken to mean stories in which the ‘storyteller’ interprets the past through relatively coherent and meaningful sequences: L. Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues? The Spectre of Liberation, Memory Politics and “War Veterans” in Namibia’, Development and Change, 41, 4 (2010), p. 590; C.K. Riessman, ‘Narrative Analysis’, in N. Kelly, C. Horrocks, K. Milnes, B. Roberts and D. Robinson (eds), Narrative, Memory and Everyday Life (Huddersfield, University of Huddersfield Press, 2005), p. 6. On the politics and narratives of southern African ex-guerrillas, see, for example, J. Schafer, Soldiers at Peace: Veterans and Society after the Civil War in Mozambique (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), and J.R. McMullin, Ex-combatants and the Post-Conflict State: Challenges of Reintegration (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) for Mozambique; L. Metsola, ‘Reintegration as Recognition: Ex-Combatant and Veteran Politics in Namibia’ (PhD thesis, University of Helsinki, 2015) for Namibia; N. Kriger, Guerrilla Veterans in Post-War Zimbabwe: Symbolic and Violent Politics, 1980–1987 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003), and J. Alexander and J. McGregor, ‘War Stories: Guerrilla Narratives of Zimbabwe’s Liberation War’, History Workshop Journal, 57, 1 (2004), pp. 79–100, for Zimbabwe.

⁹ For a few notable exceptions, see, for example, Metsola, ‘Reintegration as Recognition’, for Namibia; P. McLaughlin, ‘Victims as Defenders: African Troops in the Rhodesian Defence System, 1890–1980’, Small Wars and Insurgencies, 2, 2 (1991), pp. 240–75, J.K. Seirlis, ‘Undoing the United Front?: Coloured Soldiers in Rhodesia 1939–1980’, African Studies, 63, 1 (2004), pp. 73–94, and T.J. Stapleton, African Police and Soldiers in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1923–80 (Rochester, University of Rochester Press, 2011) for Zimbabwe; and K.W. Grundy, Soldiers Without Politics: Blacks in the South African Armed Forces (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1983) for South Africa.

¹⁰ McMullin, Ex-combatants and the Post-Conflict State, p. 85.

¹¹ ‘Blacks Fighting Recruiting from the Oppressed’, Objector, August 1984, available at http://www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za/inventories/inv_pdfo/AG1977/AG1977-B8-8-4-5-006-jpeg.pdf, retrieved 11 November 2015. Each of my interviewees mentioned that they had close family members – sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and so on – who had gone into exile to join SWAPO/PLAN. In 1992, Hage Geingob noted that ‘it is not unusual for one person from a family to be a member of Koevoet and the other a fighter with the liberation movement’ (cited in S. Groth, Namibia–The Wall of Silence: The Dark Days of the Liberation [Wuppertal, Peter Hammer, 1995], p. 178). At independence, almost as many PLAN guerrillas (32,000) as SWATF and Koevoet members (25,000) faced demobilisation and re-integration. See N.J. Colletta, M. Kostner, and I. Wiederhofer, Case Studies in War-to-Peace Transition: The Demobilization and Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in Ethiopia, Namibia, and Uganda, (Washington, DC, World Bank, 1996), p. 131.

¹² A.W. Dorn, E.C. Burton and R. Pauk, ‘True or False Warning? The United Nations and Threats to Namibia's Independence, 1989’, International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence, 26, 3 (2013), p. 508.

¹³ L.M. Howard, ‘UN Peace Implementation in Namibia: The Causes of Success’, International Peacekeeping, 9, 1 (2002), p. 100.

¹⁴ Africa Watch, Accountability in Namibia: Human Rights and the Transition to Democracy (New York, Human Rights Watch, 1992), p. 15.

¹⁵ R. Dale, ‘The Political Futures of South West Africa and Namibia’, World Affairs, 134, 4 (1972), p. 339.

¹⁶ Ibid., pp. 331–9.

¹⁷ L.J. Fosse, ‘Negotiating the Nation: Ethnicity, Nationalism and Nation‐Building in Independent Namibia’, Nations and Nationalism, 3, 3 (1997), p. 440.

¹⁸ A. Esterhuyse and E. Jordaan, ‘The South African Defence Force and Counter-insurgency, 1966–1990’, in D. Baker and E. Jordaan (eds), South Africa and Contemporary Counterinsurgency: Roots, Practices and Prospects (Claremont, University of Cape Town Press, 2010), p. 105.

¹⁹ E. Benvenisti, ‘The Legal Battle to Define the Law on Transnational Asymmetric Warfare’, Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law, 20, 339 (2010), p. 341.

²⁰ Compare to T. Zahra, ‘Imagined Noncommunities: National Indifference as a Category of Analysis’, Slavic Review, 69, 1 (2010), p. 110.

²¹ Koevoet’s official name was South African Police Counter-Insurgency (COIN) Unit, code-named Operation ‘K’.

²² K.A. O’Brien, The South African Intelligence Services: From Apartheid to Democracy, 1948–2005 (London, Routledge, 2011), p. 104.

²³ S. Gear, Now That the War Is Over – Ex-combatants Transition and the Question of Violence: A Literature Review (Johannesburg, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, 2005).

²⁴ D.H. Foster, P. Haupt and M. de Beer, The Theatre of Violence: Narratives of Protagonists in the South African Conflict (Oxford, James Currey, 2005), p. 135. See also Rousseau, ‘Counter-Revolutionary Warfare’.

²⁵ O’Brien, The South African Intelligence Services, p. 104.

²⁶ S. Ellis, ‘The Historical Significance of South Africa’s Third Force’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 24, 2 (1998), pp. 267–8.

²⁷ See J. Dlamini, Askari: A Story of Collaboration and Betrayal in the Anti-Apartheid Struggle (London, Hurst, 2014). In South Africa, such ‘turned’ guerrillas ‘were called askaris, a Swahili word acquired by British forces in the Mau Mau insurgency and transmitted via Rhodesian officers to the South African Police’, Ellis, ‘The Historical Significance’, pp. 267–8.

²⁸ D.W. Potgieter, ‘Koevoet Veterans: “We don’t give a damn for other people’s wars”’, Daily Maverick, 8 April 2013, available at http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-04-08-koevoet-veterans-we-dont-give-a-damn-for-other-peoples-wars/, retrieved 11 November 2015.

²⁹ Ellis, ‘The Historical Significance’; Rousseau, ‘Counter-Revolutionary Warfare’.

³⁰ M.R. Rupiya, Evolutions and Revolutions: A Contemporary History of Militaries in Southern Africa (Pretoria, Institute for Security Studies, 2005), p. 210.

³¹ O’Brien, The South African Intelligence Services, p. 106.

³² A. Ntinda, ‘Cobra to Wait for Five Weeks – Judge to Give Verdict on April 10’, Swapo Party, undated, available at http://www.swapoparty.org/cobra_wait_for_five_weeks.html, retrieved 11 November 2015.

³³ L. Cloete, ‘Nujoma Warns “Elements of Koevoet” in Civil Service’, The Namibian, Windhoek, 28 November 2013, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=117098&page=archive-read, retrieved 11 November 2015.

³⁴ Interview with Linus Tobias, NAWVET co-ordinator, Oshakati, 6 August 2014. All interviews for this article were conducted by the author.

³⁵ Grundy, Soldiers Without Politics, p. 262.

³⁶ A. du Pisani, ‘Beyond the Transgariep: South Africa in Namibia 1915–1989’, Politikon, 16, 1 (1989), p. 35; S. Brown, ‘Diplomacy by Other Means: SWAPO’s Liberation War’, in C. Leys and J.S. Saul (eds), Namibia’s Liberation Struggle: The Two-Edged Sword (London, James Currey, 1995), p. 28; A.M. Gossmann, ‘The South African Military and Counterinsurgency: An Overview’, in Baker and Jordaan (eds), South Africa and Contemporary Counterinsurgency, p. 94.

³⁷ G. Baines, South Africa's 'Border War': Contested Narratives and Conflicting Memories(London, Bloomsbury, 2014), p. 23.

³⁸ R.F. Dreyer, Namibia and Southern Africa Regional Dynamics of Decolonization 1945–90 (London, Kegan Paul, 1994), p. 152; M. Wallace, History of Namibia: From the Beginning to 1990 (New York, Columbia University Press, 2011), p. 294.

³⁹ On the ambiguity of the term ‘volunteer’ generally, see, for example, F.N. Göhde, ‘A New Military History of the Italian Risorgimento and Anti-Risorgimento: The Case of “Transnational Soldiers”’, Modern Italy, 19, 1 (2014), p. 24.

⁴⁰ See Grundy, Soldiers Without Politics, p. 31, and compare to L. Grundlingh, ‘The Recruitment of South African Blacks for Participation in the Second World War’, in D. Killingray and R. Rathbone (eds), Africa and the Second World War (New York, Macmillan, 1986), p. 194.

⁴¹ T. Weaver, ‘The South African Defence Force in Namibia’, in J. Cock and L. Nathan (eds), War and Society: The Militarisation of South Africa (Claremont, David Philip, 1989), p. 96.

⁴² A. du Pisani, SWA/Namibia: The Politics of Continuity and Change (Johannesburg, Jonathan Ball, 1986). See also W. Lindeke, W. Wanzala and V. Tonchi, ‘Namibia’s Election Revisited’, Politikon, 19, 2 (1992), pp. 121–38.

⁴³ Fosse, ‘Negotiating the Nation’, p. 440.

⁴⁴ Howard, ‘UN Peace Implementation in Namibia’, p. 100.

⁴⁵ J-B. Gewald, ‘Who Killed Clemens Kapuuo?’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 30, 3 (2004), pp. 568, 575.

⁴⁶ ‘Coloured’ was one of the categories used by the South African government to classify Namibia’s inhabitants, which Namibians often use to identify themselves: C.A. Williams, ‘Exile History: An Ethnography of the SWAPO Camps and the Namibian Nation’ (PhD thesis, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2009), p. 131, n. 344.

⁴⁷ ‘Baster’ is Afrikaans for ‘bastard’. However, a large number of Rehoboth residents self-identify as ‘Basters’, i.e. ‘a people of “mixed origin” and “brown skin colouring”’: K. Kjæret, K. and K. Stokke, ‘Rehoboth Baster, Namibian or Namibian Baster? An Analysis of National Discourses in Rehoboth, Namibia’, Nations and Nationalism, 9, 4 (2003), p. 580.

⁴⁸ L. Metsola, ‘“Reintegration” of Ex-Combatants and Former Fighters: A Lens Into State Formation and Citizenship in Namibia’, Third World Quarterly, 27, 6 (2006), p. 1121.

⁴⁹ Colletta et al., Case Studies, p. 131.

⁵⁰ Metsola, ‘“Reintegration” of Ex-Combatants and Former Fighters’, p. 1121.

⁵¹ McMullin, Ex-combatants and the Post-Conflict State, p. 84. While these numbers seem small, it is important to keep in mind that Namibia had a population of just over 1.4 million in 1990.

⁵² R. Preston, ‘Integrating Fighters After War: Reflections on the Namibian Experience, 1989–1993’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 23, 3 (1997), p. 459.

⁵³ R. Preston, The Integration of Returned Exiles, Former Combatants and Other War-Affected Namibians: Final Report (Windhoek, Namibian Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Namibia, 1993).

⁵⁴ Colletta et al., Case Studies, p. 149; McMullin, Ex-combatants and the Post-Conflict State, p. 85.

⁵⁵ McMullin, Ex-combatants and the Post-Conflict State, p. 85.

⁵⁶ For thorough accounts of re-integration between 1990 and 2006, which is beyond the scope of this article, see particularly Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues?’, and McMullin, Ex-combatants and the Post-Conflict State.

⁵⁷ Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues?’, p. 594.

⁵⁸ D. Isaacs, ‘Ex-combatants’ Body Makes Fresh Demands’, The Namibian, 21 June 2006, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/indexx.php?archive_id=24074&page_type=archive_story_detail&page=5867, retrieved 13 March 2016.

⁵⁹ Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues?’, pp. 594–5.

⁶⁰ B. Weidlich, ‘President Rejects War Vets’ Demands’, The Namibian, 7 August 2006, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=20296&page=archive-read, retrieved 13 March 2016.

⁶¹ S. Kamongo and L. Bezuidenhout, Shadows in the Sand: A Koevoet Tracker’s Story of Insurgency War (Pinetown, 30° South Publishers, 2011), p. 28.

⁶² ‘Khoisan Soldiers Lose Court Bid’, SAPA, 18 May 2012, available at www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/khoisan-soldiers-lose-court-bid-1.1299902, retrieved 19 November 2015.

⁶³ Ibid.

⁶⁴ See S. Nujoma, Where Others Wavered: The Autobiography of Sam Nujoma (London, Panaf, 2001).

⁶⁵ T. Ranger, ‘Nationalist Historiography, Patriotic History and the History of the Nation: The Struggle over the Past in Zimbabwe’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 30, 2 (2004), pp. 215–34. Also see C.A. Williams, National Liberation in Postcolonial Southern Africa: A Historical Ethnography of SWAPO’s Exile Camps (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2015) on Namibia; J. Pearce, ‘Contesting the Past in Angolan Politics’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 41, 1 (2015), pp. 103–19, and J. Pearce, Political Identity and Conflict in Central Angola, 1975–2002 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2015), on Angola.

⁶⁶ R. Kössler, ‘Facing a Fragmented Past: Memory, Culture and Politics in Namibia’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 33, 2 (2007), pp. 361–82.

⁶⁷ S.N. Kalyvas, ‘The Ontology of Political Violence: Action and Identity in Civil Wars’, Perspectives on Politics, 1, 3 (2003), pp. 475–94.

⁶⁸ H. Becker, ‘Commemorating Heroes in Windhoek and Eenhana: Memory, Culture and Nationalism in Namibia, 1990–2010’, Africa, 81, 4 (2011), p. 520.

⁶⁹ L. Bull-Christiansen, Tales of the Nation: Feminist Nationalism or Patriotic History? Defining National History and Identity in Zimbabwe (Uppsala, Nordic Africa Institute, 2004), p. 61.

⁷⁰ For work on the ‘ex-detainee issue’, see, for example, L. Dobell, ‘Silence in Context: Truth and/or Reconciliation in Namibia’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 23, 2 (1997), pp. 371–82; H. Melber, ‘“Namibia, Land of the Brave”: Selective Memories on War and Violence within Nation Building’, in J. Abbink, K. van Walraven and M. de Bruijin (eds), Rethinking Resistance: Revolt and Violence in African History (Leiden, Brill, 2003), pp. 305–27; J.S. Saul and C. Leys, ‘Lubango and After: “Forgotten History” as Politics in Contemporary Namibia’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 29, 2 (2003), pp. 333–53; J. Hunter, ‘Dealing with the Past in Namibia: Getting the Balance Right between Justice and Sustainable Peace?’, in A. du Pisani, R. Kössler and W.A. Lindecke (eds), The Long Aftermath of War – Reconciliation and Transition in Namibia (Freiburg im Breisgau, Arnold Bergsträsser Institut, 2010), pp. 403–43. On the ‘silencing’ of the civilian population, see, for example, H. Becker, ‘Against Trauma: Silence, Victimhood, and (Photo-)Voice in Northern Namibia’, Acta Academica, 47, 1 (2015), pp. 116–37.

⁷¹ C. Saunders, ‘History and the Armed Struggle: From Anti-Colonial Propaganda to “Patriotic History”?’, in H. Melber (ed.), Transitions in Namibia: Which Changes for Whom? (Uppsala, Nordic Africa Institute, 2007), p. 14.

⁷² Despite the two units’ differences, in this section I simply refer to ‘ex-/former SWATF and Koevoet members’ because SWAPO’s elite historical narrative does not differentiate between the two and often refers to both as ‘Koevoet’.

⁷³ G. Kornes, Negotiating “silent reconciliation”: The Long Struggle for Transitional Justice in Namibia (Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg University, 2013), p. 11.

⁷⁴ Ibid.

⁷⁵ C. Keulder, A. Nord, A. and C. Emminghaus, ‘Namibia’s Emerging Political Culture’, in C. Keulder (ed.), State, Society and Democracy: A Reader in Namibian Politics (Windhoek, Gamsberg Macmillan, 2010), pp. 260–61.

⁷⁶ Becker, ‘Commemorating Heroes in Windhoek and Eenhana’, p. 522.

⁷⁷ Dobell, ‘Silence in Context’, p. 373.

⁷⁸ Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues?’, p. 590.

⁷⁹ Ibid., p. 590. Compare to N. Kriger, ‘From Patriotic Memories to “Patriotic History” in Zimbabwe, 1990–2005’, Third World Quarterly, 27, 6 (2006), pp. 1151–69.

⁸⁰ Metsola, ‘Reintegration as Recognition’, p. 228.

⁸¹ ‘Nujoma Lashes Out at Divisive Forces’, Die Republikein, 26 July 2006, available at http://republikein.com.na.81-169-128-186.nmhhost.com/politiek-en-nasionale/nujoma-lashes-out-at-divisive-forces.51957.php, retrieved 11 November 2015.

⁸² Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues?’, p. 600.

⁸³ See, for example, C. Inambao, ‘Ex-Soldiers Stick to Their Guns’, The Namibian, 27 January 1999, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/archive19982004/1999/January/local/besieged.html; C. Inambao, ‘Action on Ex-Soldiers’, The Namibian, 28 January 1999, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/archive19982004/1999/January/local/soldiers.html; B. Weidlich, ‘“Ex-Koevoet, SWATF Should Also Benefit from Veterans’ Ministry”’, The Namibian, 16 October 2006, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=27394&page=archive-read; all retrieved 20 November 2015.

⁸⁴ C. Maletsky and P. Smith, ‘Former SWATF Soldiers Join “Gold Rush”’, The Namibian, 17 September 2004, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=9256&page=archive-read; C. Maletsky, ‘Nampol’s Hands Tied in Soldier Scam Case’, The Namibian, 16 September 2009, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=57794&page=archive-read; retrieved 11 November 2015. In early 2015, yet another organisation, the Amabutho Royal Defence Agency, was founded, which has also been called a ‘scam’. See C. Sasman, ‘New Recruitment Agency Woos Ex-Soldiers’, Namibian Sun, 23 October 2015, available at https://www.namibiansun.com/news/new-recruitment-agency-woos-ex-soldiers, retrieved 20 November 2015.

⁸⁵ Meeting between Frans Jabulani Ndeunyema, the chairman of NAWVET, Lukas de Klerk, and myself in Rehoboth, 26 August 2014.

⁸⁶ At the time of writing in late 2015, their efforts to gain veteran status in either Namibia or South Africa have remained unsuccessful.

⁸⁷ In this section, I again simply refer to ‘ex-/former SWATF and Koevoet members’ because NAWVET aims to represent members of both units and generally refers to them simultaneously.

⁸⁸ O. Nkala, ‘Namibia War Veterans Vow to Press SA for War Compensation, Benefits for ex-Koevoet, Territorial Force Vets’, defenceWeb, 17 October 2012, available at http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28121, retrieved 11 November 2015.

⁸⁹ ‘Ex-Koevoet Demands Recognition’, Namibian Sun, 15 May 2012.

⁹⁰ Personal communication from Jan Jaars, former chairman of NAWVET, via e-mail, 3 January 2015.

⁹¹ C. Sasman, ‘Ex-SWATF, Koevoet Veterans on Move, but Not Without Controversy’, The Namibian, 7 May 2012, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=94830&page=archive-read, retrieved 11 November 2015.

⁹² Personal communication from Nico Kruger, South African Department of Home Affairs, via e-mail, 10 December 2014.

⁹³ Sasman, ‘Ex-SWATF, Koevoet Veterans on Move’.

⁹⁴ Interview with Linus Tobias, NAWVET co-ordinator, Oshakati, 6 August 2014.

⁹⁵ Interview with Pastor Paulus Kristian, NAWVET member, Oshakati, 4 August 2014.

⁹⁶ See M. Schatzberg, Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa: Father, Family, Food (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2001); M. Schatzberg, ‘Power, Legitimacy and “Democratisation” in Africa’, Africa, 63, 4 (1993), pp. 445–61. Also compare to J. Schafer, ‘Soldiers at Peace: The Post-War Politics of Demobilised Soldiers in Mozambique, 1975–1996’ (PhD thesis, University of Oxford, 1999); S. Gaomas, ‘War Vets “Open for Dialogue”’, New Era, 27 July 2006, available at http://www.newera.com.na/2006/07/27/war-vets-open-for-dialogue/, retrieved 11 November 2015; E. Gyimah-Boadi and D. Armah Attoh, ‘Are Democratic Citizens Emerging in Africa? Evidence from the Afrobarometer’, Afrobarometer Briefing Paper No. 70 (2009), p. 5. In 2005, Nujoma was accorded the official title of ‘Founding Father of the Namibian Nation’ by an act of the Namibian parliament.

⁹⁷ Schatzberg, ‘Power, Legitimacy’, p. 455.

⁹⁸ Compare to Schafer, Soldiers at Peace, p. 158.

⁹⁹ For a similar argument made by Renamo veterans who consider themselves ‘the fighters for democracy’, see N. Wiegkink, ‘“It Will Be Our Time To Eat”: Former Renamo Combatants and Big-Man Dynamics in Central Mozambique’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 41, 4 (2015), pp. 869–85.

¹⁰⁰ ‘Former Koevoet and SWATF Soldiers’ March Ends Before it Starts’, ONE Africa Television, 15 April 2014, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iy15x6jYtM, retrieved 11 November 2015.

¹⁰¹ ‘Namvet Dismisses Theron’s Statement’, Namibian Sun, 18 June 2014. This critique of SWAPO clearly echoes long-standing assertions by South African intelligence and security forces that southern African liberation movements sought to establish communist dictatorships once in power.

¹⁰² Interview with Pastor Paulus Kristian, NAWVET member, Oshakati, 4 August 2014.

¹⁰³ Interview with Pontius Antindi, NAWVET spokesperson, Windhoek, 1 September 2014.

¹⁰⁴ P. Hilukilwa, ‘Former Apartheid Soldiers Start 140km Protest March Today’, Namibian Sun, 15 September 2014, available at https://www.namibiansun.com/news/former-apartheid-soldiers-start-140km-protest-march-today, retrieved 20 December 2016.

¹⁰⁵ Interview with Linus Tobias, NAWVET co-ordinator, Oshakati, 6 August 2014.

¹⁰⁶ Howard, ‘UN Peace Implementation in Namibia’, p. 100.

¹⁰⁷ Melber, ‘“Namibia, Land of the Brave”’, p. 316.

¹⁰⁸ Howard, ‘UN Peace Implementation in Namibia’, p. 100.

¹⁰⁹ Interview with Pontius Antindi, NAWVET spokesperson, Windhoek, 1 September 2014.

¹¹⁰ ‘WHK SA Legion Plans Expansion to Northern Namibia’, NAMPA, 31 December 2012, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmcWB63VfdE, retrieved 11 November 2015.

¹¹¹ As my research activity came under police surveillance after my interviews with ex-SWATF and ex-Koevoet members in the north of Namibia, I did not to conduct any further interviews with former soldiers, except for one interview with Lukas de Klerk, the chairman and only public representative of OSASN. As a result, my discussion of de Klerk and OSASN in this section is unfortunately limited to material from our one interview and multiple newspaper articles. Another member of the organisation also present at the meeting declined to reveal his identity, and repeatedly stated that he had nothing to add because de Klerk spoke for all of OSASN.

¹¹² ‘WHK SA Legion Plans Expansion’.

¹¹³ C. Sasman, ‘Former SA Soldiers Form Own Organization’, The Namibian, 5 March 2012, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/, retrieved 11 November 2015.

¹¹⁴ Interview with Lukas de Klerk, chairperson of OSASN, Rehoboth, 26 August 2014.

¹¹⁵ Ibid.

¹¹⁶ Grundy, Soldiers Without Politics, p. 267.

¹¹⁷ R. Dale, ‘The Armed Forces as an Instrument of South African Policy in Namibia’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 18, 1 (1980), p. 63; see also R.J. Gordon, ‘The Impact of the Second World War on Namibia’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 19, 1 (1993), pp. 147–65.

¹¹⁸ Interview with Lukas de Klerk, chairperson of OSASN, Rehoboth, 26 August 2014. I repeatedly tried to verify with the South Africa Department of Military Veterans if this is the case, but received no response.

¹¹⁹ Interview with Lukas de Klerk, chairperson of OSASN, Rehoboth, 26 August 2014.

¹²⁰ L. de Klerk, ‘Oudsoldategeregtig op huldeel’, Die Republikein, Windhoek, 22 May 2012, available at http://republikein.com.na.81-169-128-186.nmhhost.com/se-jou-se/oudsoldate-geregtig-op-hul-deel.148341.php, retrieved 11 November 2015.

¹²¹ E.J. Landis, ‘Security Legislation in Namibia: Memorandum of the South West Africa (Namibian) Bar Council’, Yale Journal of International Law, 11 (1985), p. 52 n. 24.

¹²² De Klerk, ‘Oudsoldategeregtig op huldeel’.

¹²³ W. Menges, ‘Court Confirms Legality of Dual Citizenship for Some Namibians’, The Namibian, 9 July 2008, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=44471&page=archive-read; and W. Menges, ‘Dual Citizenship Legal for Born Namibians’, The Namibian, 7 June 2011, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=80705&page=archive-read, both retrieved 11 November 2015.

¹²⁴ Interview with Lukas de Klerk, chairperson of OSASN, Rehoboth, 26 August 2014.

¹²⁵ De Klerk, ‘Oudsoldategeregtig op huldeel’.

¹²⁶ Personal communication from Nico Kruger via email, 10 December 2014.

¹²⁷ A. du Pisani, ‘State and Society under South African Rule’, in Keulder (ed.), State, Society and Democracy, p. 61.

¹²⁸ United Nations, ‘Part Three. Judicial Decisions on Questions Relating to the United Nations and Related Intergovernmental Organizations – Chapter VIII. Decisions of National Tribunals’, in United Nations, United Nations Juridical Yearbook (New York, United Nations, 1988), pp. 376–437.

¹²⁹ Compare to similar findings in S. Gelber, ‘A “Hard-Boiled Order”: The Re-education of Disabled WWI Veterans in New York City’, Journal of Social History, 39, 1 (2005), p. 161; J.D. Keene, Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001); and Schafer, Soldiers at Peace, p. 15.

¹³⁰ See S. Thiranagama and T. Kelly, ‘Introduction: Specters of Treason’, in S. Thiranagama and T. Kelly (eds), Traitors: Suspicion, Intimacy, and the Ethics of State-Building (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010), p. 10.

¹³¹ T. Kelly, ‘In a Treacherous State: The Fear of Collaboration Among West Bank Palestinians’, in Thiranagama and Kelly (eds), Traitors, p. 184.

¹³² Muraranganda, ‘Geingob Blows Off Koevoet Pension Money Pleas’.

¹³³ Ibid.

¹³⁴ ‘Nudo Hits Back at Hage over Koevoet Treatment’, Namibian Sun, 23 April 2015, available at https://www.namibiansun.com/news/nudo-hits-back-at-hage-over-koevoet-treatment, retrieved 11 November 2015.

¹³⁵ Metsola, ‘The Struggle Continues?’, p. 604.

¹³⁶ See, for example, S. Ikela, ‘Koevoet Veteran on the Streets for 25 Years’, Namibian Sun, 21 May 2015, available at https://www.namibiansun.com/news/koevoet-veteran-on-the-streets-for-25-years, and K. Shinana, ‘Broken and in misery’, Namibian Sun, 18 November 2015, available at https://www.namibiansun.com/news/broken-and-in-misery, both retrieved 23 November 2015, and ‘Ex-SWATF/Koevoet Dangerous – Jabulani’, The Namibian, 19 January 2016, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?page=archive-read&id=146349, and N. Kahiurika, ‘Ex-SWATF, Koevoet Petition Parliament’, The Namibian, 25 February 2016, available at http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?page=archive-read&id=147767, both retrieved 13 March 2016.