1989 | John Ya Otto becomes General Secretary of the NUNW. |
16.01. | The first group of 450 Cuban troops withdraw from Angola in the second week of January. UN Secretary-General Péres de Cuéllar recommends substantial cuts to the size and cost of UNTAGs military component (from 7 500 to approximately 4 500 troops). At the same time SA Foreign Minister Pik Botha announces the reduction of SA Police personnel in Namibia, and General Johannes Geldenhuys, SADF Commander in Namibia, announces cutbacks in the number of troops stationed in the territory. After many previously attempts the UN Security Council manages to agree that implementation of Resolution 435 would begin on 01.04.1989. |
18.01. | The civilian component of UNTAG is established with 300 professional personnel for the political, electoral and administrative offices at headquarters in Windhoek and the 42 regional and district political field offices. A second group of about 180 comes for the registration process, which begins after three months. |
20.01. | Timothy Dibuama, the UN Secretary-Generals military adviser, proposes that UNTAG keeps the original ceiling of 7 500 troops, but in the first instance only 4 650 would be deployed: three battalions, each with five companies: the other four battalions would be kept in their home countries, in reserve. |
February | The United Democratic Front of
Namibia (UDF) is formed, with Reggie Diergaardts LP and Justus ||Garoëb (Damara
Council) as founding members. The Rehoboth Volksparty is revived by Arrie Hermanus Smit, and forms an alliance with the NNF. The United Liberation Movement is formed to join the NPLF. The Namibia National Democratic Party (NNDP) is formed under the chairmanship of Paul Helmuth after a split in the National Democratic Party. The NNF is revived. Action Christian National (ACN) is formed under the leadership of JWF "Kosie" Pretorius. |
16.02. | In passing the enabling SC Resolution 632, the UN Security Council agrees to the terms of implementation of Resolution 435 on 01.04.1989. By that date, UNTAG forces are to be in place, including those to man the reception points at which PLAN soldiers are to be confined to base. South African troops are to be restricted to bases at Grootfontein or Oshivelo, or both In particular, the Council is at last freed from constraints preventing UNTAG from sending preparatory staff into the country. Abdou Ciss is now able to bring his key personnel to Windhoek where they meet with Steven Fanning and Rachel Mayanja. |
20.02. | South Africa objects that Sweden provides UNTAG with a transport company. Timothy Dibuama proposes that Poland might just be able to fulfil this task. It is under greatest pressure that South Africa accepts this proposal, and Australia, Canada and Denmark for logistical support. |
24.02. | New problems in the implementation of Resolution 435 come to the forefront. The "Non-Aligned-Movement" questions whether UNTAG is permitted to purchase in South Africa despite the existence of sanctions, in spite of the fact that UNTAG cannot survive in Namibia without purchasing from South Africa. Only the hint that independent countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe are massively dependent upon South Africa, despite the sanctions, resolved the situation. |
26.02. | General D Prem Chand, Commander of UNTAGs military contingent, and 20 other senior military and UNTAG officials arrive in Windhoek. The first contingent of UNTAG soldiers arrives some days later. |
28.02. | The TGNU dissolves itself. Administrator-General Louis Pienaar assumes control over governmental affairs in Namibia. |
March | The Christian Democratic Party
(CDP) is formed under the leadership of Petrus "Piet" Matheus Junius, as a
merger with the CDU. The latter is disbanded by its leader Andrew Kloppers, who in 1988
had left the DTA to join the LP, and thereafter the Namibia Volksparty in
alliance with the DTA. The National Patriotic Front (NPF) is formed by SWANU-MPC (Moses Katjiuongua), CANU (Siseho Simasiku) and ANS (Eben van Zijl). |
01.03. | The UN General Assembly accepts the Namibian peace plan, but cuts its budget from US $ 700 million to US $ 416 million. |
14.03. | The UN Secretary-General, Péres de Cuéllar, proceeds to arrange for the formal agreement on a cease-fire between SWAPO and South Africa as envisaged in UN SC Resolution 435. In this regard he addresses identical letters simultaneously to SWAPO (accepted on 18.03.) and the South African Government (accepted on 21.03.), suggesting the beginning of the formal cease-fire at 04:00 Greenwich Mean Time on 01.04.1989. |
16.03. | UN lawyers have been allowed to make a major concession to the South Africans during the final stages of negotiation of the "UNTAG Status of Forces Agreement". They agree with South Africa that SA could refuse visas to anybody of UNTAG if and when they feel like it. Consequently the South Africans deny visas to many UNTAG staff, especially press and information people. Martti Ahtisaari exercises strong pressure on the South African representative in Windhoek, Jeremy Shearar, to get this ban lifted. |
21.03. | Vezera "Bob" Kandetu, Deputy Secretary of the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN), expresses that the Namibian churches are concerned "about how the South Africans are preparing to "cook" events, especially the arrangements concerning the elections". |
29.03. | General Prem Chand from UNTAG expresses concern that up-to-date, three days before the implementation of UN SC Resolution 435, there is no indication of a cease-fire on the South African side. |
29./30.03. | Sam Nujoma inspects military parades of PLAN soldiers at the Hainjeko Military Academy in Lubango, Cahama, Xangongo and other SWAPO military training centres in Angola, and reads to them the terms of the cease-fire which is to come into full effect on 01.04.1989. He tells them that from that day most of them will become civilians again and will return to Namibia to take part in the "political mobilisation of the masses and to vote for SWAPO". |
31.03. | The Special Representative for
UNTAG, Martti Ahtisaari, arrives in Windhoek to take over the functions of the interim
government together with the Administrator-General. He is received at the Windhoek
International Airport by pro-South African forces. SWAPO gives an order to stay away from
the event. SWAPO supporters should rather delay their demonstrations until the real
implementation of SC Resolution 435 commences on 01.04.1989. Sam Nujoma announces the United Nations supervised cease-fire in Lubango, in the presence of Hidipo Hamutenya and the Governador da Provincia du Cunene (Angola), Pedro Mutindi. Ahtisaari holds its first "cabinet meeting" with Prem Chand, Danny Opande (Brigadier-General, Kenyan, Chand's Deputy), Abdou Ciss, Steven Fanning,, Hisham Omayad, Cedric Thornberry and Omar Halim ( Indonesian, Thornberrys deputy) in the afternoon in Windhoek. Prem Chand reports that matters are moving along pretty well on the military side, but he lacks vehicles. He has a liaison team in Angola, and the Angolans have promised to be co-operative over SWAPOs "confinement to base". However, at the moment he is not monitoring them there and does not even know how many PLAN soldiers are in base, or where the bases are. Roman-Catholic missionary stations in Ovamboland, with their well organised information network, report to their headquarters in Windhoek that on the evening of 31.03. South African security forces are concentrated on the northern border. This is in contravention of SC Resolution 435 which states that the SA forces are to be restricted to base (Oshivelo or Grootfontein). The church reports that the South Africans are apparently preparing to stop PLAN soldiers infiltrating the country. The Vicar General, Nordkamp, immediately contacts both the UN representatives in Windhoek and the South African authorities. The UN do not believe him. The South Africans answer him: "We have found the enemy. Tomorrow [01.04.1989] we will seize them". In the evening South Africa hosts an official dinner for UNTAG at the "South West Africa House", the residence of the Administrator-General, Louis Pienaar. The South African Foreign Minister, Pik Botha, and the SA Minister for Defence, Magnus Malan, give a chilling account of what is happening on the northern border to Angola. They maintain that SWAPO has put about 150 of its PLAN soldiers across the border, fully armed, and that it has a further 750 troops just to the north, apparently ready to cross. After the dinner Ahtisaari calls New York and suggests the UN Secretary-General to call in Theo-Ben Gurirab, SWAPOs representative at the United Nations and the Angolan Ambassador and to tell them what the South Africans have said tonight and to convey the gravest concern to them. |
April | Four reception centres for
returning Namibian exiles (approximately 40 000) are designed by Namibia Consult
Incorporated under the directorship of Klaus Dierks. The centres are located at Döbra,
Mariabronn near Grootfontein, and at Ongwediva and Engela in Ovamboland. They are
administered under the auspices of the Repatriation, Resettlement and Reconstruction
Committee (RRR Committee: Chairman: Wilfried Neusel, Secretary-General: Immanuel Dumeni,
Treasurer: Carl Scholz) of the CCN. During UNTAGs peak they have more than 8 000 personnel from 21 countries (military ), 25 countries (police) and 80 countries (civil) in Namibia. UNTAGs postal services have a civil component (G Andal) in the Philip Troskie Building in Windhoek. The military component is served by the Danish UNTAG contingent (Borge Knudsen) in the Suiderhof military base in Windhoek. |
01.04. | Implementation of SC Resolution
435 commences, initiating the holding of UN-supervised free and fair elections for a
Constituent Assembly. The cease-fire between SWAPO and SA comes into effect. UNTAG is not
yet fully deployed (fewer than one quarter of the envisaged - already reduced - 4
650 UNTAG troops are present in Namibia and are not strategically deployed as yet,
especially not in the north). The independence process falters the day it begins, as an estimated 600 PLAN soldiers (as claimed by Pik Botha) enter Namibia from Angola and clash with SA-led security forces in northern Namibia. This allegation reflects the South African position as supported by some of the western powers. The real number of PLAN soldiers which enters Namibia from Angola, or whether these troops really come from Angola, or whether they are already in Namibia, are issues still to be verified by further research. The incident is used by the South Africans to motivate the Special Representative for UNTAG, Martti Ahtisaari (he receives an ultimatum from the South Africans who give him only half-an-hour to think it over), to release South African troops out of their restricted bases at Grootfontein and Oshivelo. On the other hand many Namibian sources show that PLAN soldiers have always been in northern Namibia. One witness , Johannes Kutumba, is the only survivor of 28 PLAN soldiers who are killed during April 1989. Kutumba reports that his unit has been in hiding in northern Namibia since December 1988. Klaus Dierks reports later that he personally had been inside PLAN camps within Namibia before the 01.04.1989. The decisive clause in SC Resolution 435 states that "Provision for SWAPO forces inside Namibia at the time of cease-fire to be restricted to base at designated locations inside Namibia to be specified by Special Representative after necessary consultation". As regards "SWAPO bases in Namibia", all available evidence points to the reality that although PLAN soldiers frequently cross from Angola into Namibia, and stay for longer periods in the bush and among the people, they return to Angola once their tasks had been carried out. They dont have "bases" in Namibia, in the sense of permanent installations containing personnel and technical infrastructure. The South Africans maintain that PLAN has come to carry out offensive actions against South African security installations, to cut of the Ondangwa to Oshakati highway, to sabotage the southward power line from Ruacana, telephone lines and road bridges. There are plans for large-scale mine-laying, the cutting of water pipelines and to infiltrate the "white" farming areas around Tsumeb. The chief of the SWA Police, Dolf Gous, maintains that the PLAN forces dont care about the proposed cease-fire. "They are not even trying to hide their tracks". These South African accusations are never found to be substantiated. Two taken PLAN prisoners-of-war - who were seriously beaten up by the South Africans - are interrogated by Daniel Opande and Ed Omotoso from UNTAG. The answers the two prisoners are giving are consistent and are holding up under detailed questioning. Both men are found to be convincing. Each says that "they have been ordered by his commander to enter Namibia peacefully and not to engage the South African security forces, because a cease-fire comes into effect on 01.04.1989 and there is to be no more fighting. The UN personnel would come and take care of them". Instead of being received by UNTAG, the PLAN soldiers are ambushed by the South African forces. Preliminarily the clashes are concentrated in the areas of Ohangwena, Omafu, Onuno, Engela, Endola and Ondeshifiilwa. The real fighting only starts on 02.04. when the situation becomes clear that there is no cease-fire. In the next days and weeks the South African counter-insurgency forces cannot be restrained. They choose instead to have a bloodbath, a massacre. In 1998 the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission refers to the suspicion that grave crimes were committed by those forces at that time. It was alluding to reports of the summary execution of many SWAPO prisoners [Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 1998, Vol. 2]. Pro-SWAPO demonstrations staged in Windhoek to welcome UNTAG are from the start crushed by the SWA Police under the command of Jumbo Smit. The German member of Parliament, Uschi Eid, and Klaus Dierks lodge a protest with the UN representatives in Windhoek, without any success. The demonstrations continue, however, in Katutura. With between 10 000 and 15 000 participants, these are the largest demonstrations ever held in the history of Namibia. The British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher arrives in Windhoek, coming from Blantyre in Malawi. She immediately supports Botha's stand on the events at the northern border without any inquiry being made as to the truth of his claims. Monument at Ondeshifiilwa remembering the
Occurences of April 1st, 1989 |
03.04. | SA troops (three battalions) which,
according to SC Resolution 435 are to be restricted to base at Oshivelo and Grootfontein,
leave their bases with the approval of UN Special Representative Martti Ahtisaari, to stop
the SWAPO troops. Heavy fighting ensues, with 300 SWAPO (some of the killed persons are
not PLAN soldiers but merely known local SWAPO supporters and private people) soldiers and
27 SA soldiers killed. Theo-Ben Gurirab, SWAPOs representative at the United Nations, rips into Martti Ahtisaari speaking of the hands of the United Nations covered in Namibian blood. |
04.04. | Peter Mweshihange, SWAPOs
Secretary for Defence, speaks in Luanda, Angola. He says that SWAPO has been waiting for
the United Nations to put an end to the fighting for the last three days and that it is
ready to accept a new cease-fire. It is now up to Ahtisaari, who had requested the use of
the South African troops, to get his allies also to accept a cease-fire. The PLAN soldiers
have orders now to lie low, inside Namibia, until the cease-fire is in place. Then, they
have to be regrouped in order to present themselves to UNTAG. "Unfortunately,
UNTAG denied them this opportunity. UNTAGs and South Africas insistence that
SWAPO cadres should be expelled from Namibia, their one and only motherland, to Angola, is
contrary to the UN independence plan ... ." However, internal SWAPO leaders like
Niko Bessinger, Jerry Ekandjo and Danny Tjongarero are obviously not
informed by the SWAPO leadership in Luanda about SWAPOs latest movements, though
they are the designated liaison personnel until the external leadership would return to
Namibia. David Smuts, Namibian lawyer who runs the Namibian human rights centre, informs UNTAG about events in the north of Namibia during the last weekend. It is a chilling account, suggesting the arrival and congregation of PLAN forces in a peaceful manner and their being set upon by the South African security forces. Bodies were then piled together in heaps and left to decompose. |
06.04. | South Africa proposes that PLAN soldiers who disarm would be taken out of the country to designated entry points at the northern border and would then be brought back as returnees. The Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) informs Martti Ahtisaari that they had been caught entirely by surprise by the events of 01.04.1989. |
07.04. | The Administrator-General Pienaar
unilaterally suspends the independence process. The SA Foreign Minister Pik Botha quickly
contradicts Pienaar with a statement that South Africa remains fully committed to SC
Resolution 435. The UN Secretary-General orders the early mobilisation of three UNTAG-battalions from Finland, Kenya and Malaysia. |
08.04. | Sam Nujoma, in order to safeguard
the peace process according to SC Resolution 435, orders all SWAPO troops to cross the
border into Angola. But the fights still continue until 24.04. The Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) proposes that church premises in the north (Oniipa, Oshigambo, Engela, Odibo, Mpungu, Okatana, Oshikuku and Anamulenge) could provide the place UNTAG needs to accommodate SWAPO soldiers before their return to Angola. The combination of church sanctuary and UN flag would be a potent solution. |
09./11.04. | Representatives of SA, Angola and Cuba in the Joint Monitoring Commission, with US (Chester Crocker), Soviet (Anatoly Adamishin), and UNTAG observation, meet at Mount Etjo to salvage the independence plan. The parties agree that SWAPO troops should be assembled at 16 assembly points and withdraw from Namibia to the 16th latitude in Angola, under guarantee of safe passage. All assembly points would be under UNTAG supervision and be operational by noon on 11.04.1989. |
11.04. | The Mount Etjo Agreement is in jeopardy before its starts because the South African troops continue fighting and block the PLAN combatants withdrawal to Angola. Very few PLAN fighters show up at the official assembly points due to the highly visible South African army mechanised infantry units camping alongside the unarmed UN peacekeepers. Administrator-General Louis Pienaar states that UNTAG and the South African security forces had "agreed that PLAN soldiers would be interrogated in order to verify the suspected number of infiltrators ... ". Pienaars statement is consequently overruled by Pik Botha who states there is no question of interrogation. |
13.04. | Even without the threat of interrogation, the SA security forces keep a high intimidatory profile and move freely and openly around the assembly points and the churches. No PLAN soldiers come to the assembly points and very few to the churches. A fatal encounter takes place in the Kaokoveld, at an assembly point near Swartbooisdrift. It looks as if some wounded stragglers were trying to reach some form of sanctuary and were ambushed by the South Africans just short of it. |
17.04. | Only seven PLAN soldiers have come
so far to the official assembly points and to the churches. UNTAG advance parties of the three 850 all-ranks battalions - from Finland, Kenya and Malaysia - were in Namibia prior to 01.04.1989, but the remaining troops do not arrive before 17.04. (Finland) and 01.05. (Kenya and Malaysia). Indeed, their arrival has been advanced in all cases by two weeks because of the new conflict. The Finns go to the Kavango, the Malaysians to Ovamboland, and the Kenyans to the centre and the south of the country. The four remaining battalions - from Bangladesh, Togo, Venezuela and Yugoslavia - are held on reserve in their home countries. |
18.04. | Angola and Cuba demand direct talks between SWAPO and the South Africans in order to save the Mount Etjo Agreement. SWAPO and South Africa agree to meet at Ruacana. The SWAPO delegation is led by Nahas Angula and Erastus Negonga while the South Africans are led by General Willie Meyer and Carl von Hirschberg. The talks lead to a South African agreement to respect the cease-fire agreement, and to initiate to a 60 hours cease-fire beginning at 26.04. |
20.04. | UNTAG opens the first United
Nations Civilian Police (UNCIVPOL) office in Windhoek-Katutura. Two hundred UN police men
will be sent to the north by next week. UNTAG is, however, held back by the lack of
accommodation, vehicles, communications, and in the north by the absence of mine-resistant
vehicles (MRVs). UNTAG cannot send the police around in the north in soft-skinned
vehicles. The SA security forces, who know the situation much better than the United
Nations, never leave paved roads without their MRVs. UNTAG gets the first twenty MRVs from
the SA Army, but only four are working. Most of UNTAGs military observers in Angola are by this time stationed in the south of the country, at Chibemba, where they can keep track of the number of SWAPO soldiers coming north. |
25.04. | The South African security forces inform UNTAG at Oshakati that they have the intention to hand over a number of SWAPO prisoners taken during the previous weeks fighting. When Martti Ahtisaari and Marrack Goulding arrive on 26.04. they are told that 31 prisoners would be given to UNTAG. But, no hand-over arrangements are made with the Angolese authorities, and there is no accommodation at Oshakati. So UNTAG has to fall back on its church friends, and Bishop Kleophas Dumeni from ELCIN agrees to provide such accommodation at Ongwediva for the 26 who are reasonably fit (five other are taken to the church hospital at Oniipa). On 27.04. the 26 PLAN soldiers go by road to the Angola border, having been checked medically, and interviewed to make sure that they want to go back. |
26.04. | The South African troops are again confined to base for 60 hours in order to enable SWAPO troops to cross the border into Angola at certain agreed points under the control of the UNTAG military component. |
27./28.04. | The Cape Town Joint Commission is attended for UNTAG by Martti Ahtisaari, Marrack Goulding, Prem Chand and Ed Omotoso and by the South African Administrator-General for SWA. Its key decision is that, following the confinement to base of South African forces that is occurring simultaneously with the meeting, a "process of verification", lasting fourteen days until 06h00 on 13.05., would be conducted. "On this date, the confinement of all SWAPO troops in Angola to bases north of the 16th parallel under UNTAG monitoring, would have been completed. The South African forces will resume restriction to base and the implementation of Security Council Resolution 435 will continue as originally scheduled". |
28.04. | After the expulsion of the president George Mutwa together with Lemmy Matengu and Ernest Likando CANU splits, into CANU-NPF and CANU-UDF (allied to the United Democratic Front). Siseho Simasiku becomes president of the CANU-NPF and Mutwa president of the CANU-UDF. |
30.04. | The British newspaper Sunday Telegraph reports an account of the condition of eighteen bodies of killed PLAN fighters with wounds consistent with their having been executed rather than killed in combat. |
May | UNTAG military forces and civilian
police personnel finally reach their mandated strength. The UN appoints a commission to
investigate all complaints of violations of the principles of impartiality during the
transition. The Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) is founded under the leadership of, inter alia, Werner Henry Mamugwe, Attie Beukes (grandson of Samuel Beukes who fought the Germans in 1915 and the South Africans in 1925) and Erica Beukes. The WRP joins the UDF alliance and later the Socialist Alliance of Namibia (SAN). |
08.05. | The Administrator-Generalss
senior staff are improving their relations with UNTAG. UNTAG is now able, sometimes
informally, to do a great deal of business with people like Carl von Hirschberg, Kobus
Bauermeester, Gerd Roux and John Viall. On the same day UNTAG asks for the suspension of a senior policeman as a result of a South African police raid (Koevoet (crow bar)) on a church hospital in the north where Koevoet broke into the place in search of SWAPO soldiers whom they thought had sought sanctuary there. Von Hirschberg granted the suspension and proposed a joint committee to which all problems about bias and intimidation could be sent, with the authority to call on the Attorney-General to initiate prosecutions. |
13.05. | The South African security forces return to base. Since the Cape Town Joint Commission meeting at the end of April they had searched for SWAPO arm caches and had killed four more SWAPO personnel. |
15.05. | A second meeting at Ruacana between UNTAG and the South Africans takes place. South Africa confirms now that the situation existing on the 31.03.1989 has now been restored and that South African security forces should continue to be restricted to base. UNTAG General Opande tells the meeting that he had counted 1 442 PLAN members returning to Angola and Angolan General Ndalu confirms that there are no SWAPO personnel south of the 16th parallel. The parties agree to meet again at Cahama in Angola on 19.05. |
16.05. | Angola proposes a peace plan to
eight African leaders at a Luanda summit. UN Secretary-General Péres de Cuéllar presents to the UN Security Council a resolution on the need for impartiality of the United Nations (UN Document S/20635). |
17.05. | The Administrator-General appoints the Judicial Commission for the Prevention of Intimidation and Election Malpractices (The Commission winds up its work on 17.11.). Chairman is Bryan OLinn. |
19.05. | Hompa Angelina Matumbo Ribebe is inaugurated as Queen of the Shambyu area in Kayengona in the Kavango. |
22.05. | The Administrator-General commences to pass the necessary legislation and takes the appropriate administrative measures to ensure the envisaged free and fair process leading to Namibian independence. The first one is Proclamation AG 11 which provides for the "Establishment and Powers of the Commission for the Prevention and Combatting of Intimidation and Election Malpractices". |
June | Another 1 200 Cuban troops leave Angola, bringing the total of Cubans having left to 2 000 (since January). |
01.06. | SC Resolution 435 requires the demobilisation of the South West Africa Territory Force (SWATF) and of what is called "citizen forces" and "commandos" which should have been completed by 01.04.1989. The latter two number 11 158. Their arms and equipment is deposited in drill halls and is guarded by UNTAG infantry. The SWATF consists of 21 661, all ranks, and should have been demobilised by 01.04.1989. Much of it had then been remobilised after the events of 01.04 and thereafter, but it fully stands down by to-day. Its members, however, believe themselves to be on indefinite leave, rather than demobilised. They keep their uniforms and report twice a month to receive their pay from South African senior officers (all in civilian clothes). UNTAG believes this is a breach of the Settlement Plan, dismissing South African arguments based on the danger of future SWAPO incursions. This thorny issue is not resolved until the November 1989 elections, when the possibility begins to be examined of creating a national army for Namibia. |
08.06. | The Administrator-General passes Proclamation AG 14 for the "First Law amendment (Abolition of Discriminatory of Restrictive Laws for purposes of Free and Fair Elections)". |
12.06. | The Administrator-General declares a general amnesty for all Namibians living abroad, lifts prohibitions on political activities and repeals or amends 46 discriminatory laws (AG 16 of 1989). This enables the return of Namibian exiles. |
mid-June | By this time UNTAG has its five official networks in place. The military component provides the first network. The second link is the UNs civilian police who was increased from 500 to 1 500 during the first months of the mission. The UNTAG administration represents the third network which attends to mission support and logistics. The fourth one is the electoral division, headed by Hisham Omayad. The fifth network is supported by 42 regional (ten) and district (32) centres. Although the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the RRR Committee of the CCN operate autonomously, they are in fact co-ordinated closely with UNTAG, and its network of primary and secondary reception centres (planned by Namibia Consult Incorporated under the directorship of Klaus Dierks) provide an important potential link between the United Nations and various events in Namibia. |
18.06. |
The repatriation of Namibian
exiles begins in the second week of June, under the auspices of the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the RRR Committee of the CCN. The first group of
senior SWAPO leaders returns from exile (inter alia Hage Gottfried Geingob,
Libertine Amathila, Theo-Ben Gurirab, Hidipo Hamutenya and Pendukeni Iivula Ithana), and
SWAPOs first appeal for national reconciliation follows their return. Altogether 42
736 Namibians return from exile from 42 countries, including about 7 000 PLAN soldiers in
civilian clothes with their commanders, far more than the 30 000 Namibians who fought
against SWAPO in the South West Africa Territorial Force (SWATF) and around 6 000 others
who belonged to the South West African Police or para-military units such as Koevoet. Most
of the exiles return from the SWAPO Camp Kwanza Sul in Angola. The South Africa controlled South West African Broadcasting Corporation (SWABC) ignores completely this major event. Not only was there no news item on the evening news, there was no news at all, without explanation. When SWAPO held its first press conference on the eve of Ahtisaaris arrival on 31.03.1989, at least SWABC didnt panic so much that they cancelled the news, they just ignored SWAPO and promoted the DTA instead. The SWABCs partiality in favour of the South African colonial authority under the leadership of Piet Venter and his deputy, Piet Coetzer, continues until well after the November elections. UN document S/20883 dated 06.10.1989 describes the unsatisfactory performance of the SWABC. UNTAGs failure to change the SWABCs biassed behaviour can be described as its principal failure in Namibia. The Namibia Peace Plan 435 (NPP-435)(Nahum Gorelick) monitors continuously the SWABC conduct. Pendukeni Ithana becomes Deputy Head of Legal Services in the SWAPO Election Directorate. Mosé Penaani Tjitendero joins the Election Directorate after his return from exile. The South African Government withdraws their budget subsidy of about US$ 200 million per annum to the Namibian treasury. The outcome of South Africas decision would be a serious deterioration in the countrys infrastructure and the abolition of many essential services. It would not be possible to meet civil services salaries throughout the financial year ending on 31.03.1990. UNTAG warns South Africa that Namibia is South Africas responsibility until independence. |
22.06. | Angolan President Dos Santos and
UNITA leader Savimbi shake hands at Gbadolite in Zaire, and agree on a cease-fire to begin
at midnight. The Socialist Alliance of Namibia (SAN) is formed, but becomes dormant in the same year. The Partys Secretary-General is Rirua Karihangana. |
26.06. | After complex negotiations between UNTAG and the Administrator-General, agreement is finally reached concerning the qualifications for voters registration. The criteria of four years residence in Namibia, insisted on by the United Nations, is now accepted for non-native Namibians. South African military or civilian officials who wish to apply to register are required to make an additional sworn affidavit that they intend to settle in the territory after independence. The electorate would also include the adult children of native-born Namibians. |
30.06. | The Administrator-General passes Proclamation AG 19 for the "Registration of voters (Constituent Assembly Proclamation)". |
01.07. | The election campaign officially
starts. The National Transport Corporation is renamed TransNamib. |
02.07. | SWAPOs vision of Independent Namibia is published in its Election Manifesto which is based on the drafted Constitution of 1975. It makes provision for a bill of fundamental rights, the structure of state organs, citizenship requirements and the fundamental characteristics of the future Namibian state under the principle of "justice and equality for all". |
04.07. | The registration of voters begins.
Anyone entitled to register can do so at any registration point in Namibia. Sixty nine
registration centres are established within the 23 electoral districts. Additionally 110
mobile registration teams are deployed to cover 2 200 registration points in the rural
areas. UNTAG estimates that approximately 685 276 Namibians are qualified to vote (On the
23.09.1989 701 483 eligible voters are registered). Special voting stations are to be set
up in Swakopmund to cater for those coming from Walvis Bay which is still part of South
Africa. Others are arranged at villages in the extreme south of Namibia for those
travelling to register from other parts of South Africa. Another is created at the
Windhoek International Airport. The Political Consultative Council (PCC) is formed in Angola by a pressure group of 153 "SWAPO detainees" to campaign for the release of other "detainees" allegedly still being held in Angola (as result of the so-called "spy-crisis"). These detainees are to be returned to Namibia, under UN auspices.The PCC leaders are, inter alia, Riundja Kaakunga and Johannes Konjore. The Roman-Catholic Commission on "Justice and Peace" condemns human right violations in the SWAPO camps. External SWAPO communities, based in Zambia, and later in Angola, had been concerned at the possibility of infiltration by agents of South Africa. As with all the other southern African liberation movements, this had always been a real danger and was certainly prevalent. But there has also been always some form of paranoia on the SWAPO side. Even SWAPO Presidents wife, Kovambo Theopoldine Nujoma, née Katjimune and brother-in law, Aaron Mushimba, are believed to have been detained at one time or another, and some quite senior SWAPO people had reportedly still be in detention as late as February 1989. The European Parliament adopts a resolution on SWAPOs prisoners, at the instigation of a parliamentarian group, most of whose members had shown little previous concern for the victims of Apartheid. On 05.05.1989 Martti Ahtisaari had sent a letter to the South African Administrator-General, to Sam Nujoma, and to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Zambia and Angola, asking for the information about all Namibian prisoners and detainees, held under their authority or in their territory. Replies were requested by 20.05.1989. SWAPO and Angola reply within the deadline. Angola is bland. It says that there are "presently no Namibian prisoners or detainees in Angolese prisons or SWAPO camps". During September 1989 UNTAG sends a UN mission, the UN Mission on Detainees (UNMD), led by Nigerian ex-Ambassador BA Clark, to Angola and Zambia. The mission roams both countries for several weeks, with the support of the governments concerned, going everywhere they want, sometimes with minimal notice, but finds no Namibian detainees. |
17.07. | Ombara (traditional title)
Tuhavi David Kambazembi is sworn in as Chief of the Kambazembi Royal House in Okakarara.
Meeting between the Cabinet Committee: Archives of
Anticolonial Resistance and the Liberation Struggle (AACRLS) and the Council of the
Royal Kambazembi House: Okakarara: 29.07.2003 Ovaherero Community of the Kambazembi Group at the Meeting with
the Cabinet Committee: Archives of Anticolonial Resistance and the Liberation
Struggle (AACRLS): Okakarara: 29.07.2003 Chief Tjikuua of the Ovaherero Community at Okakarara at the
Meeting with the Cabinet Committee: Archives of Anticolonial Resistance and the
Liberation Struggle (AACRLS): 29.07.2003 |
20.07. | The Patriotic Unity Movement is founded under the presidency of Eric Biwa and joins the UDF alliance. |
21.07. | The Administrator-General publishes
a draft proclamation on the election process. Reaction throughout Namibia is hostile
because South Africa wants to heavily influence the forthcoming elections. Discussions on
the election topic between the A.G. and UNTAG continue throughout the months of August and
September and are prolonged and at times bitter. They are so difficult in their final days
at the beginning of October that UNTAG seriously considers to postpone the elections. One
point of concern is that UNTAG requires that political party agents are allowed at polling
stations and at the count, and that they be allowed to be present at all stages of the
polling. This is to help ensure not only that the voting would be free and fair, but also
that it would be seen to be so by the Namibian people. This is opposed by the South
African side. South Africa tries to the last moment in October 1989 to influence the
establishment of the Constituent Assembly. The draft proclamation gives renewed proof of
South Africas embittered determination to dominate the constitution-making process
in Namibia and to retain control up to the last moment, and possibly beyond. UN Secretary-General Péres de Cuéllar visits Namibia. He is disturbed about the continued violence, especially in the northern regions. One of the UN Secretary-Generals main priorities is to meet with all the parties and meet with them all together. Everybody comes - the representatives of ten political parties, large and small, and all the Namibian press to record this unprecedented meeting. Péres de Cuéllar declares inter alia to the political parties "Sooner or later, UNTAG and the South Africans will depart. You, as the representatives of the Namibian people, will achieve your long-delayed inheritance of independence. You will also shoulder the full responsibilities of independence, and of nation-building ... ." Péres de Cuéllars suggestions are adopted by all parties. One outcome of the meeting is the "Code of Electoral Conduct" of 12.09.1989. |
25.07. | The Popular Movement 1904 (PM 1904) is founded as a political pressure group with the aim of "regrouping the discarded remnants of exterminated Namibians and securing the safe return with their cattle and belongings" of all refugees who settled in Botswana in the aftermath of the Ovaherero-German War of 1904/06 and the Ovambanderu War of 1896. Another aim is to bring about "Namibian dedication to the cause of returning confiscated land". The movements first Secretary is Rirua Karihangana. |
24.-28.07. | The UN Council for Namibia arranges the UN Conference: "Contingency Planning for Technical Assistance to Namibia during the Transition to Independence" in Vienna/Austria. Namibian participants are inter alia: Lindi Kazombaue, Immanuel Dumeni, Solomon Amadhila, Pius Dunaisky, Fanuel Tjingaete, Ben Kathindi, Calle Schlettwein, Hermann Weitzel, Bob Meiring and Klaus Dierks. |
August | The Liberal Party is revived by Andrew Kloppers, and joins the FCN alliance. Following the death of Andrew Kloppers Snr, Andrew "Andy" John Fred Kloppers becomes the partys leader. |
04.08. | The notorious South African Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB) which in the past has been responsible for numerous human right abuses in Namibia such as the killing of PLAN prisoners of war, tries to disturb the peace process. Wouter Basson allegedly tries to poison the water supply system at the Döbra reception centre for returning Namibian exiles with Vibrio Cholera bacterium. Later (2000) it is established that he allegedly ordered the "poisoning" of more than 200 SWAPO soldiers. |
10.08. | South African right-wingers Horst Klenz, Darryl Stopforth and Leonard Veenendal (the so-called three "Outjo firebomb attackers") attack the regional offices of UNTAG in Outjo. In the process two Namibians, Theophilus Haoseb and Ricardo van Wyk, are killed. After initial arrest, the three South Africans manage to flee and escape to South Africa. |
14.08. | The South African President PW Botha resigns. His successor is FW De Klerk (with effect from 15.08.). |
23.08. | Some SWA police officers, including Koevoet soldiers, shoot at SWAPO members during election meetings at Onaukali and Okatope. |
end-August | To halt intimidation in Namibia,
the UN Security Council unanimously passes UN SC Resolution 640 calling for the
demobilisation of all paramilitary groups and local units (SWATF, Koevoet). On
01.09.1989, in reaction to this resolution, the South African Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Pik Botha, bellows at Martti Ahtisaari "And tell your Secretary-General
to go to hell. If thats the line the Secretary-General is taking after the Security
Council, Ill advice the Acting State President (FW De Klerk) today, and
well suspend the application of 435 tomorrow." South Africa continues with its support of the biassed SWABC and of Koevoet and the policy of destabilisation of SWAPO. Pik Botha later (25.07.1991) admits that South Africa had set up a massive "slush fund" of 100 million South African Rand to fund all opposition parties, especially the DTA, in an effort to defeat SWAPO in the UNO supervised elections. |
28.08. | Charlie Marengo (born 1901), son of Jakob Marengo, dies in Kakamas, SA. |
04.09. | The Registration of Political Organisations Proclamation is issued and provides for a judicial hearing of applications for registration. Each political party has to be able to present 2 000 signatures of supporters who are also registered votes, and to make a deposit of R 10 000, returnable to it if one or more of its candidates succeed in being elected to the Constituent Assembly. Ten parties are eventually registered. |
08.09. | After all the efforts by UNTAG to get Koevoet demobilised, the Administrator-General comes up with a big surprise. He decides that he would discharge Koevoet, after all. He will place them on leave until the end of the elections. They will hand in their uniforms and their weapons, and return to civilian life. |
09.09. | Charlie Marengo is buried at Vaalgras/ Koichas. Wilhelm Konjore, Jakob Marengos great grandson, conducts the burial service. Klaus Dierks and Henning Melber are the only "whites" to participate in the ceremony. |
12.09. | Advocate Anton Lubowski, one of SWAPOs few "white" members and Acting Director of Finance and Administration in the SWAPO Election Directorate, is assassinated outside his home in Windhoek. Reportedly the CCB is also responsible for this murder. |
14.09. | SWAPO President Sam Nujoma, accompanied by Moses Makue ||Garoëb, returns after 30 years in exile. He is greeted by SWAPO leaders such as Nathaniel Maxuilili, Hendrik Witbooi and Hage Geingob and thousands of SWAPO supporters at the Windhoek International Airport. |
15.09. | UNCIVPOL reaches its final strength of 1 500. Policemen of 25 countries take part in the peacekeeping effort. For the first time both Germanies participate with their police forces in this effort. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) tumbles over themselves to offer police contingents. UNTAG thinks the presence of their police, monitoring the South West African Police (SWAPOL), might be an interesting consciousness-raising exercise. Indeed the GDR police are enthusiastically ensuring Namibias free and fair elections the very moment on 09.11.1989 that, back home, their own excited citizens are ripping down the "Berlin Wall". A special task is to control SAs "special operations" unit, Koevoet (crow bar) which still intimidates the local population in the north. Many Koevoet and SWAPOL members are essential there to enforce a colonial-Apartheid system, rather than to be upholders of a neutral system of law and order and to protect the people. One example stands for many others. On 15.06. Koevoet brandished their power at the UNHCR camp for returning refugees at Ongwediva. UNTAG counted between 70 and 80 casspir armoured vehicles encircling the camp. But the strength of SWAPOL begins to diminish after UNCIVPOL has reached its full strength. By the time of the November elections, UNCIVPOL is effectively the only organised law-enforcing body in the north of Namibia. UNCIVPOL also provides first-line policing for the UNHCRs programme of returnee-return, being present at the critical points of entry, and at the primary and secondary reception centres. UNCIVPOL is especially active in monitoring SWAPOL as the election campaign and programme of rallies becomes more intense. By the time of the elections UNCIVPOL is attending about 100 rallies a week, with SWAPOL appearing only sporadically. |
22.09. | The registration of voters ends. |
28.09. | At Windhoek-Katutura there is an affray between SWAPO and the DTA supporters, the worst such incident since the beginning of the year. About 500 DTA people march into the middle of the SWAPO area of the township, with clubs and sticks. Fighting breaks out almost at once and, after a few minutes, someone drives up and opens fire in all directions. Several people are injured, miraculously, nobody is killed. The South West African Police (SWAPOL) is suspiciously absent. |
September to October | The election campaign reaches its "hot" phase. A number violent incidents erupt between supporters of SWAPO and the DTA, particularly in the north. UNTAG manages to contain the violence by persuading all parties to sign a "Code of Electoral Conduct" (12.09.)(UN Document S/20883). However, at the end of October calm settles over Namibia like a soft, gentle blanket. |
Beginning October |
The South African Administrator-General Louis Pienaar transfers the Namibian civil service pension fund from the Namibian administration to trustees who could move it to South Africa. The estimated outflow of Namibian pension funds is 1,2 billion Rand. |
10.10. | Martti Ahtisaari declares the following: "In our view the Constituent Assembly is to be a creature of the Namibian people, and, like parliamentary bodies everywhere, is to be largely self-governing. Naturally it will, at least until it adopts the Constitution, be a body with a strictly limited mandate, that is, to formulate and bring into force a Constitution for an independent Namibia, to declare independence and in that connection to establish the initial Government for the new country. All it will require from the existing Government, that is from the Administrator-General, are the material resources to enable it to function, and protection from any outside interference." |
13.10. | The Administrator-General passes Proclamation AG 49 for the "the Holding of an Election for a Constituent Assembly". This final version of the proclamation provides for all registered voters in possession of the correct documents to cast "ordinary ballots" if they vote in districts where they had registered. "Out-of district voters" are required to cast "tendered ballots" which are subject to verification before being counted. All ordinary ballots are counted at the respective district headquarters. Tendered ballots are counted in Windhoek. Overall, voters tendering ballots amount later to 13,4% of the total electorate. In an overall turnout of more than 97% of the registered voters, 1,4% votes are finally rejected for one reason or another. |
15.10. | South Africas position is becoming more liberal and less extreme. The new South African President, FW De Klerk, permits a huge anti-Apartheid demonstration in Cape Town and all the South African ANC leaders, except Nelson Mandela (released on 11.02.1990), are released from jail. |
20.10. | A young South African civil servant, Sue Dobson, reports about a big, heavily funded disinformation campaign against UNTAG and the Security Council Resolution 435. |
24.10. | UNTAG receives reports from various sources about unexplained destabilising activities in the north. One example shows activities by the Ombili Foundation. This foundation supports Bushmen (San or Khoesan) activities in the north and has two objectives. One is to try to create and support a DTA presence in what is otherwise a SWAPO stronghold area through enticement and a show of force. The other is to conduct liaison with a large UNITA camp just across the Angolan border, close to Beacon 34. The foundation is providing transit camps and general security for the supply route to this UNITA formation from the Tsumeb-Grootfontein area. They also support the readiness of South Africa supported Bushman contingents as a potential guerilla-type defensive entity. |
01.11. | For the last, South Africa discharges a noisy explosion on Namibias eventful path to independence. SA troops are placed on alert after reports of a SWAPO troop presence on the Angola-Namibia border. South African Foreign Minister Pik Botha alleges that South Africa has been monitoring UNTAGs communications for several days and has now clear and unambiguous proof that UNTAG is aware of SWAPO plans for a mass invasion from Angola into Namibia more or less on the eve of the elections. Very quickly and after experts have checked the "evidence", the threat turns out to be a hoax and crude forgery; a case of deliberate misinformation by "anti-independence" forces. Pik Botha later admits that these reports were communicated to him by General Johannes Geldenhuys from the same source as information on the events of 31.03./01.04.1989 which had led to the attack and death of PLAN troops and civilians. SWAPOs Peter Katjavivi remarks that "Pik Bothas stupidity brings SWAPO near to a two-third majority". |
06.11. | On the eve of the Elections for the Constituent Assembly, Fred Eckhardt, UNTAGs spokesperson declares that all UNTAG monitors are reporting that "Namibia from Oshakati to Keetmanshoop, from Swakopmund to Gobabis, report that the country is exceptionally calm". |
07./11.11. | Elections for the Constituent Assembly take place. |
07.11. | UN Special Representative Martti Ahtisaari declares the following: "I have now received preliminary reports from virtually all parts of the country in regard to the 358 polling stations supervised and controlled by UNTAG . ... However, I foresee the possibility of delay due to the unexpected tidal wave of voters on the first day. Namibians have gone to the polls with overwhelming determination and enthusiasm. In some places, they began to line up 81/2 hours before voting stations opened at 07h00 hours today. From all over the country, UNTAG Regional Directors have reported that queues began to form in the middle of the night. Though stations notionally closed at 19h00 hours, Namibians who were already in line at that time are still voting at 20h30 hours local time, so overwhelming has been the resolve to determine their countrys future. ... All regions have described a situation of overall calm ... ". |
08.11. | At the second voting day, voting is quite as heavy as on the first, but is better organised by more experienced personnel, so that kilometre-long queues, widespread on 07.11., are rare. The situation remains calm to very calm throughout the country. However, a problem arises over the shortage of ballot boxes and papers in the north. |
09./10.11. | The problem of shortages of ballot boxes and papers is resolved on the third and fourth day of the elections. It had been caused by attempts of political parties to avoid the long lines at some stations. They had bused supporters, en masse, to less populous regions and stations, and these stations, though supplied with 50% more materials than they anticipated a need for, quickly ran out. |
10.11. | The fourth day of voting is extremely quiet. Several stations had already seen well over 100% of the numbers they had estimated would be voting there. |
11.11. | UN Special Representative Martti Ahtisaari certifies that the elections were "free and fair". He declares "But it is the people of Namibia whom I chiefly wish to congratulate. They have patiently waited many years for this opportunity to take their future into their own hands. During the campaign, and especially during this week, they have demonstrated vast resources of calm, self-discipline and determination. This week, the people of Namibia have given the whole world an exemplary lesson in democracy. It has been a privilege for all of us from the United Nations to participate in this historic process, an experience none of us will ever forget". |
14.11. | The election results are announced: SWAPO 57,3%, DTA 28,6%, UDF 5,6%, ACN 3,5%, NPF 1,6%, FCN 1,6%, NNF 0,8%, SWAPO-D 0,5%, CDA 0,4% and NNDP 0,1%. Over 97% of registered voters of 701 483 go to the polls. SWAPO polls just over 57% to win 41 of the 72 seats in the Assembly. The DTA manages to block a two-thirds SWAPO majority by winning over 28% of the votes cast and 21 seats. Of the 23 electoral districts, the DTA wins 14, SWAPO 8 (including the three largest - Ovamboland, the Kavango and Windhoek) and the UDF one. The high DTA poll is achieved by a concerted South African effort to transport thousands of "white" South Africans and Angolan UNITA supporters to Namibia in order to vote against SWAPO. The two party leaders, Sam Nujoma and Mishake Muyongo, accept the voting results as free and fair. |
15.11. | SWAPO President Sam Nujoma announces that SWAPO does not want to create an one-party state, but would rather work together with its political opponents to build the new state. |
16.11. | Namibia obtains a new definitive stamp issue (fourth decimal definitive issue) with mineral and mining pictorials as motif (no water mark). These stamps still use the name "SWA" although SWAPO had just won the election and some weeks later the new independent Republic of Namibia comes into being. |
20.11. | The last 1 500 SA troops start to leave Namibia within a week of the elections being certified. |
21.11. | Sam Nujoma opens the Constituent Assembly exactly one week after the elections being certified. The sixty-six men and six women of the Constituent Assembly represent a total of seven political parties. Theo-Ben Gurirab proposes the adoption of the 1982 Constitutional Principles of the Western Contact Group (UN Report S/15287 dated 12.07.1982). It is agreed that Namibia will be a multi-party democracy with an independent judiciary and a strong Bill of Rights which would protect civil liberties and oppose arbitrary expropriation of private property without justification. Nico Bessinger proposes that Hage Geingob, SWAPOs election campaign manager, is elected Speaker. He chairs a Standing Committee consisting of twelve SWAPO members and nine from other parties (DTA: four and NNF, FCN, ACN and UDF one member each) to draft the rules of procedure which are adopted by the end of November. Later Geingob chairs the constitutional Drafting Committee. Dirk Mudge from the DTA proposes the acceptance of the SWAPO draft as the basis for drafting the Constitution. The constitutional draft is decisively designed by Hartmut Ruppel and the President of the NNF, Vekuui Rukoro. Namibia is the second country in Africa (after Cape Verde) abolishing the death penalty. The basic human rights cannot be changed, not even with a two-third majority in Parliament. At the end there are only two points of material dispute between the parties: over the question of an Executive President and whether or not there should be a second chamber of Parliament. |
23.11. | UNTAG commander Daniel Opande is
present in Lubango in Angola when the last of the SWAPO camps are closed down. By this
time 290 personnel in civilian clothes await repatriation to Namibia, together with 50
women and children. SWAPOs arms are handed over to the Angolese army. UNTAGs
last monitoring post in Angola is closed on 31.12.1989. There is a general break-down of law and order in the north with SWAPOL being virtually passive. Many members are packing their goods to return to South Africa. The vacuum that is developing in the north is troublesome. Kobus Bauermeester from the AG office is reminded by UNTAG that until independence South Africa has the responsibility for the maintenance of law and order. |
27.11. | The Joint Monitoring Commission (JMC) meets at Sanbonani near the Kruger National Park in South Africa. Theo-Ben Gurirab speaks about three issues of which SWAPO has still concerns as to South Africas intentions: the need for international support of various kinds right up to independence, the position of South African troops in Walvis Bay, and as regards the South Africa supported Bushmen (San or Khoesan) military units and still active Koevoet units. |
07.12. | The British Ambassador, Robin Renwick, reports that SWAPO has approached him for help in the creation of the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) and the Commonwealth (which Namibia will join with independence) for the formation of a national police force (NAMPOL). This follows a letter which Sam Nujoma has written in this connection to the UN Secretary-General, Javier Péres de Cuéllar, on 23.11.1989. Just before Christmas two committees are established to look at the creation of the nucleus of a national army, and at the integration and training of a new Namibian police force. On 12.12.1989 the Home Affairs Minister-Designate, Hifikepunye Pohamba, approves a training course for the future NAMPOL. |
08.12. | The Administrator-General puts three options on the table concerning the Bushmen (San or Khoesan) military units: First, that ex-South West Africa Territorial Force (SWATF) Bushmen should be taken, with their families to South Africa and resettled in Kimberley - as promised over the years by South African Army generals. Secondly, they could simply be left to their own devices in Namibia and thirdly, South Africa could fund - for a time - some international body to administer and support them. The South African General, Kit Liebenberg, says that he would prefer if the Bushmen could stay in Namibia, but, "if nothing is done", it would be better for them to be resettled in South Africa. Martti Ahtisaari states that this problem is essentially a Namibian issue and that the future Namibian Government must be consulted and has to participate in finding a solution. Consequently a "Tripartite Working Group on the Bushmen Issue" is established. |
21.12. | Sam Nujoma announces his Shadow Cabinet for the first freely-elected Government of the Republic of Namibia. Hage Gottfried Geingob becomes Prime Minister. The following ministries are created (Minister, Deputy Minister, Permanent Secretary): Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development (Minister not appointed yet, Gerd Hanekom is appointed as Minister as from February 1990, Kaire Mbuende, Calle Schlettwein); Defence (Peter Hilinganye Mweshihange, Phillemon Malima, Frans Kapofi); Education, Culture and Sport (Nahas Angula, Buddy Wentworth, Vitalis Ankama); Finance (Otto Herrigel, Deputy Minister not appointed yet, Godfrey Gaoseb); Foreign Affairs (Theo-Ben Gurirab, Netumbo Nandi Ndaitwah, Andreas #Guibeb (son of Diederick #Guibeb)); Health and Social Services (Nicky Iyambo, Deputy Minister not appointed yet, Solomon Amadhila); Home Affairs (Lucas Hifikepunye Pohamba, Nangolo Ithete, Ndali Kamati); Information and Broadcasting (Hidipo Hamutenya, Daniel Tjongarero, Vezera Kandetu); Justice (Ernest Ngarikutuke Tjiriange, Vekuui Rukoro (NNF), Albert Kawana); Labour, Public Service and Manpower Development (Hendrik Witbooi, Timothy Hadino Hishongwa, Tuli Hiveluah); Land, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (Marco Hausiku, Marcus Shivute, Uitala Hiveluah); Local Government and Housing (Libertine Amathila, Jerry Ekandjo, Nghidimondjila Shoombe); Mines and Energy (Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo, Helmut Kangulohi Angula, Leake Hangala); Trade and Industry (Ben Amathila, Reggie Diergaardt (UDF), Tsudao Gurirab); Wildlife, Conservation and Tourism (Niko Bessinger, Pendukeni Iivula Ithana, Hanno Rumpf); Works, Transport and Communication (Richard Kapelwa-Kabajani, Klaus Dierks, Peingeondjabi Shipoh). Further members of the Cabinet are the Secretary General of SWAPO (Moses Makue ||Garoëb); the Minister of State for Security (Peter Tshirumbu Tsheehama); the Attorney-General (Hartmut Ruppel); the Auditor-General (Gerd Hanekom, later Jan Jordaan) and the Director-General of the National Planning Commission (Zedekia Ngavirue). While approximately 50 % of the government positions have been allocated to the Oshivambo speaking community, other Namibian communities are also represented. The key positions are filled by formerly exiled SWAPO members of the SWAPO Central Committee. The "white", and especially the German speaking group is clearly over-represented. Two deputy ministers belong to opposition parties (NNF and UDF). This indicates SWAPOs policy of "National Reconciliation". |
28.12. | The first group of UNTAG soldiers leaves Namibia. However, Sam Nujoma asks one Kenyan battalion to stay behind and assist in the establishment of the future Namibian Defence Force. Likewise, the British Government undertakes to support this task. |
Martti Ahtisaari and the SA Administrator--General, Louis Pienaar at the Press Conference on 31 March 1989
Namibia State Archive UNTAG Helicopter
Namibia State Archive Voters during the November 1989 Election
Namibia State Archive