Stuart Hess
Jackson se pad (Jackson’s road) is not known to many South Africans. But for one of the oldest peoples of Southern Africa, the San bushmen, it is the scene of one of the darkest moments in their history.
Jackson se pad is the name given to a road in southern Angola on which an assault occurred in 1979, when four members of the bushmen community employed by the former South African Defence Force (SADF) were killed because they refused to continue doing the dirty work of their apartheid bosses.
This week the Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard from two witnesses about the massacre. “Jackson” refers to a Captain Jackson, former commanding officer at the Omega base in the Caprivi.
Staff Sergeant Mario Mahongo and Corporal Paulo Chimbenda testified about the massacre, which took place after about 140 bushmen soldiers were told they were to be returned to Bushmanland.
“We were loaded on to the trucks like sand bags,” said Chimbenda. After a few hours Jackson received new instructions and they turned around and drove back towards Omega, but instead of stopping there they continued north into Angola, where the assault occurred.
The first of the four to be killed, Kativa Kameia, was beaten to death by four white soldiers, using the butts of their rifles. Paulino Dala and Chimbenda’s brother, Fernando Kapuso, were then beaten and shot.
The fourth victim, Augustino Cambinda, was ordered to get off the truck.
“Jackson told him to walk, but the sergeant [Cambinda] refused to walk, saying Jackson would shoot him if he did. But eventually he got off the truck and started walking,” said Chimbenda.
When Cambinda was a few hundred metres away, Jackson shot him.
“Jackson told the rest of us to get off the truck and start walking back to the camp. We walked for two days … before reaching the border of the Caprivi,” recalled Chimbenda. When they returned to the camp, the survivors told their story to their leader, Mahongo.
“I was very upset and I couldn’t sleep,” said Mahongo. He told a Major Dupisani about the assault. Dupisani referred him to Colonel Piet Hall, commander of 31 Battalion.
The next day the bushmen were asked on parade if they were unhappy about the incident. “We were disarmed and surrounded by fully armed white soldiers. They told us that if we were unhappy, we should raise our hands and we could follow the same road [Jackson se pad] as the other four.
`One by one we were asked by the white soldiers if we were unhappy, but no one put up their hands,” said Mahongo.
The four victims of Jackson se pad were buried in unmarked graves in southern Angola.
Six senior members of the former SADF have been implicated in the attack, three of whom are still alive. Mahongo said the assault was one of many on the bushmen, who were seen as the “lowest of the low” in the SADF.
Today they remain unpopular because they are seen as having fought for the wrong side. The bushmen were employed by the SADF because of their expert tracking skills.
Mahongo said he is happy about finally having the opportunity to testify. “Now the world knows about our suffering,” he said.
Roger Chennells, lawyer for the South African San Institute, said no official documentation exists of the massacre and families of the deceased have still not been informed of the whereabouts of the graves.