Decorated hero dies

VETERAN politician and guerilla fighter John Otto Nankudhu died in the early hours of yesterday morning at the age of 78.
He was found dead in the bathroom of his newly renovated house in Wanaheda yesterday morning around six.

Barnabas Paulus, who found Nankudhu, said the cause of his death has not been established. Paulus said Nankudhu was in his usual upbeat spirit the day before he died. ‘We grew together, not in our private lives but in our prison lives,’ commented director of the Namibian Former Robben Island Political Prisoners Trust (NFRIPPT), Helao Shityuwete. ‘We called him commander because he was someone who would put everyone in line, and we followed. He was a man made to lead, not to be led.’ Nankudhu and Shityuwete were among 30 Namibians who were found guilty of treason under the Terrorism Act in Pretoria in 1968. Nankudhu was the leader of the first group of six guerilla fighters of the South West African Liberation Army (SWALA), later to be called the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), that infiltrated northern Namibia from Zambia to set up an underground military training and recruitment camp in 1965.He was born at Ontananga on June 24, 1933, and attended the Ontananga school where he completed Standard 6 [Grade 8]. He would later further his studies while he was a political prisoner at Robben Island. He joined the Ovambo People’s Organisation (OPO) in 1959 while working as a clerk at Oranjemund. From there, he went to Cape Town, South Africa, but was deported to Ovamboland in 1960. He later went into exile, first to Botswana, and then moved on to Zambia and Tanzania. He received military training in Egypt alongside Tobias Hainyeko, as well as in Russia where he trained with the likes of Samora Machel, the first president of independent Mozambique. Nankudhu returned to the country in 1964, the year Swapo formed its military camp in Kongwa, Tanzania, which he helped set up. After infiltrating Namibia in 1965, the group moved around in northern Namibia, including Kaokoland, before deciding to settle at Ongulumbashe where they were flushed out and attacked by the South African Defence Force (SADF). The attack was on August 26, 1966, the first military engagement between Swapo and the South African forces, a day that is now commemorated as Heroes Day. He was arrested in November 1966 at Ongwediva, and taken to Oshakati where he was incarcerated for two weeks before being sent to a prison in Pretoria. He was tried and found guilty under the Terrorism Act, and sentenced to death in January 1968. The sentence was reviewed due to international pressure, and Nankudhu was then sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to Robben Island. He was released on December 17, 1985. On the eve of independence, Nankudhu was involved in election education in Endola. Shityuwete said the former Robben Island political prisoners held a reunion in 1995 where they formed the NFRIPPT, of which Nankudhu was one of the directors. After independence, he continued working for Swapo and was elected deputy treasurer of the Windhoek branch in 1986, and central regional chairperson in 1988. He was a regional councillor of the Samora Machel constituency in Wanaheda, Khomas Region from 1999 to 2010. Nankudhu was decorated with the rank of colonel at the Eenhana Memorial in 2007, and was a member of the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs. As such, said Shityuwete, Nankudhu is entitled to a State burial, be that at Heroes Acre, or another location agreed to between his family and the military. Funeral arrangements are still being made. Nankudhu left behind his wife and five children.