Anton Lubowski: A Character

WE gathered at the Pionierspark Roman Catholic Church to pay our last respects to Fonny Karuaihe. Kakena Nangula read the eulogy.

She said: ‘I have learned that it is important to leave your loved ones with a word of love for you may not see them again…I have learned that no matter how heartbroken you are, the world does not stop for your grief.’ What a statement!Twenty years ago Anton was lost to Namibia and when I saw Gabie Lubowski, Anton’s lovely wife, on television my mind went reeling. I thought of Anton and I remembered many things about him, about Gabie and their children. I first met Anton as young lawyer with the company Lorenz and Bone in the early 1970s. My friend Vekuii Rukoro had just joined the law firm as Article Clerk and I used to visit him there from Döbra High school. That was at the peak of racial discrimination and every time I saw a white man I assumed he was either a racist or he was faking. This is the time we as black students started interacting with young white students the likes of Hartmut Ruppel, Clause and others. I left the country for studies in 1978 and when I returned in 1984, Anton had moved on to become an advocate. I worked for the CCN and later his wife also worked there. That is when we started to interact somewhat regularly through civil society and labour unions alongside the likes of Loide Kasingo, Lokusani Petrus Ilonga, John Pandeni, Ben Ulenga, Rosa Namises, Ruben Itengula and others.Anton was fearless and possessed the self-conscious capacity to interact with anybody, irrespective of their persuasions. I recall a day Anton and I ran into Isaak Uirab, latter then Swanu Vice President. Anton said: ‘Congratulations Comrade Uirab, I hear that Swanu have finally sent cadres to Libya for military training.’ Uirab said: ‘Listen Bob… why does Anton always do this… he knows these are sensitive matters that cannot be discussed on the street with all these agents of South Africa around… why can’t we rather discuss these DTA puppets who are selling our country…’ They exchanged jokes and we moved along.Anton lived what he believed in. When he went to a Swapo rally he stayed until everybody had left and even when the police had broken the stage. The Swapo Youth League organised a rally in Katutura in the area where the UN Plaza and Kentucky Fried Chicken are located. It was a rough day. Koevoet stormed the stage with a Casspir and stampeded the crowds in all directions. Steve Katjiuanjo, Elia Kaiyamo and others were arrested from the stage. A policeman punched Comrade Donkie. She fought back and Comrades Nanyemba and Shiimi intervened and there was literally a ‘vuisgeveg’ with the police. Police threw teargas all over the place. Anton grabbed one of the unexploded canisters and threw it into the police Casspir. It exploded inside the Casspir and there was pandemonium. When the storm subsided, Anton was on the stage with a lady Comrade, calling people back to the meeting. Koevoet was determined and the meeting never continued. When after his death South Africa’s Magnus Malan created controversy around Anton’s name many Comrades started to fall around. Moses Garoëb made the cutting-edge statement to the shame of South Africa. He said: ‘We in Swapo bear no evidence that Comrade Lubowski collaborated with the enemy and we shall continue to hold him in high regard.’ That signalled the end of the story.