John Grobler
The first body bags arrived in Namibia from Kinshasa this week as a credibility gap as wide as the Congo started opening up around President Sam Nujoma.
After days of obdurate denials, the Ministry of Defence confirmed this week that Namibian Defence Force (NDF) soldier Lazarus Hiskia had been killed in fighting on the outskirts of Kinshasa. Although representative Vincent Mwange insisted that he was the only casualty, at least five more body bags are rumoured to have been delivered to the Grootfontein airbase.
Nujoma’s unilateral decision to send troops to defend embattled Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Laurent Kabila drew the first fire last week when Namibia’s high commissioner to London, Ben Ulenga, resigned in protest.
Ulenga bravely put his own future on the line, citing the reluctance of ruling party South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo) to break Nujoma’s stranglehold on the reins of power and the foreign policy crisis unleashed by his military adventurism.
The central reason for the crisis was Nujoma’s unwillingness to allow his proposed third term as president to be discussed at all at an extraordinary Swapo congress held last weekend, and which was originally planned for this very purpose. The issue was simply buried and a third, unconstitutional term for Nujoma presented as a fait accompli.
“The leadership problems in Swapo have now reached critical proportions,” Ulenga said, noting the government’s inability to deal with unemployed ex- guerrillas, political prisoners, the land issue and the Congo crisis as evidence of “a profound lack and total absence of coherent policy.
“Given recent experience and current happenings, one can, within reason, only expect much more of the same from five more years of the present leadership.”
Ulenga is a former Robben Island inmate (1976 to 1985) and trade unionist who helped bring Swapo to power in 1990.
Informed sources this week said that at no stage had Nujoma informed either his Cabinet or Parliament of his intentions to become embroiled in the Central African conflict. Neither was it raised at last Friday’s congress, where Nujoma’s right-hand man, Hifekepunye Pohamba, pushed through changes to the party constitution that effectively centralise and extend Nujoma’s extensive powers as party chair down to regional level.
Meanwhile, disquieting evidence of the extent of Nujoma’s personal involvement in the Congo conflict surfaced. The presence of Namibian troops in Kinshasa was secret until disclosed by Zimbabwe, but evidence now points to early preparations by the NDF.
A Namibian businessman said all suppliers to the NDF were invited to an urgent, top-secret meeting with top brass at defence headquarters in Windhoek, where they were asked to submit tenders for paramilitary equipment.
“The crazy thing was, they asked us for something like 30 000 body bags, zip-up numbers that could withstand tropical conditions,” said the businessman on condition of anonymity. The rest of the order was for camouflage rainwear, he said. “We complied, but we had no idea what the hell they wanted it for, and they weren’t telling.”
Nujoma increased the National State Intelligence Agency’s (NSIA) portion of the 1998/1999 budget by a massive 40% – and despite repeated demands for explanations by opposition politicians in Parliament, none was ever given. With Swapo holding 72% of the national council seats, pushing through the NSIA budget was a mere formality. Both the NDF and NSIA fall directly under Nujoma – the NSIA, thought to be handling the Congo involvement, operates directly from State House.
Over the past two weeks, mysterious planes have been landing and taking off at night from Grootfontein at regular intervals, as well as from Windhoek’s smaller Eros airport; Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s jet was there this week. Despite eyewitness accounts, no official was willing to comment – all inquiries to the Directorate Civil Aviation, airport management and related structures were referred to Minister of Works, Transport and Communication Hampie Plichta.
Like all other top government officials, Plichta was personally appointed by Nujoma, who has over the past eight years built up a massive system of power and patronage that makes nonsense of government claims of transparency and accountability. Plichta told local newspapers he knew nothing at all about the planes.
“It’s an open secret that there are two hierarchies in Namibian politics,” said an African diplomat. “There’s the hierarchy of official positions in government, and there is a hidden hierarchy of appointed officials whose power depends on their level of personal access to Nujoma.”
One part of this hierarchy is the NDF, whose top brass has been spending an inordinate amount of time in Luanda since the Congo crisis began. Nujoma, as commander of the NDF, revels in the role of military man, despite his disastrous track record in this field.
Ironically, Nujoma now appears to be relying on the same people who frustrated his military ambitions during Swapo’s 23-year-long independence struggle. Various sources in the NDF this week said former soldiers of the South West Africa Territory Forces (SWATF), since incorporated into the NDF, were actively being recruited for duty in the Congo. This is borne out to an extent by the death of Hiskia – he and a large part of the Third Battalion he had served in were former SWATF soldiers.
Meanwhile, Nujoma’s ambitions to control Namibia absolutely by virtue of appointing regional party organisers to Swapo’s central committee looks as if it may yet backfire on him. With regional elections due in December, Nujoma had the politically important constituencies changed to suit his scheme – and now voters have to register again. But so far, less than 10% of the voters appear to have done so – and word from the voter-rich communal areas of northern Namibia is that they are not interested.
This is as serious a blow to democracy as it is to Nujoma, political analysts point out – but it may be necessary to break down Nujoma’s personalised structures at grassroots level to effect real democracy.
And for a change, there is light at the end of the tunnel in the form of Ulenga. As he said in announcing his resignation: “I am aware that clear, directed and determined leadership is of the essence. Subject to the democratic views of others, I am prepared to take up the challenge.”