TWO separate groups saying they represent the former South West Africa Territorial Forces (SWATF) and Koevoet members have gathered a week ago at different venues to get registered.
In Rehoboth on Saturday, April 28, a group calling themselves the Old South African Soldiers in Namibia (OSASN) met, where the meeting was allegedly in telephonic contact with chief of the Council of Military Veterans of South Africa, Godfrey Giles. National chairperson of OSASN, Lukas de Klerk, said Giles had indicated that he will meet with the group in Namibia within the first two weeks of June to see how to assist it to proceed to lobby the South African government for benefits to the former ex-SWATF and Koevoet members.De Klerk said there were 500 ex-soldiers and descendants present at the meeting, which agreed to move forward with the registration of the former soldiers. On Sunday, April 29, the Namibia War Veterans Trust (NWVT), a body registered with the Master of the High Court on March 12 this year, met at the UN Plaza in Katutura to introduce the body to ex-soldiers, and to start a separate database that will also be presented to both governments for consideration of benefits. Both groups are calling on both the Namibian and South African governments for war veteran benefits for the ex-soldiers, but have chosen different routes to take their demands forward.OSASN maintains that the ex-SWATF and Koevoet members demand veteran status in South Africa and eligibility to benefits under the Military Veterans Act that came into force at the start of April this year. This Act defines a military veteran as a South African citizen, who was in the military service of any military organisation, whether it was a statutory or non-statutory body, involved on all sides of South Africa’s liberation war from 1960 to 1994. It further stipulates that a military veteran is one that has served in the Union Defence Force before 1961, or who have become a member of the new South African National Defence Force after 1994, but is no longer serving in the military after having completed military training. This group says that it fought for the South African Defence Force (SADF) and should thus be eligible for benefits as South Africans. The NWVT, on the other hand, say SWATF and Koevoet members cannot be viewed as South Africans, unless otherwise proven, and can thus not directly benefit under the South African Military Act. It thus maintains that the OSASN registration of ex-soldiers ‘is false’. ‘If it was true that South Africa would compensate Namibians, it would have been communicated through the South African High Commission; the South African government would have alerted the Namibian government,’ said executive director of the NWVT, Ndeunyema Jabulani on Monday. Pastor Jan Jaars of the NWVT said Namibian ex-soldiers will thus have to find other means to negotiate with South Africa for ‘some form of compensation’. ‘The world knows that South Africa used people of the then South West Africa to fight in the army; many people have died, were mutilated, lost family members. The peace in South Africa now was created by SWATF and Koevoet. There is thus no way that South Africa can wash its hands and say it wont pay,’ commented Jaars. Both groups said they are in negotiations with both governments to recognise them as war veterans with concomitant benefits. Military attache at the South African High Commission, colonel Michael Murrey, in March said he was not aware of an official country position on ex-soldiers with Namibian citizenship. But the two groups are soldiering on because they feel that they are left in the cold by both governments. There were about 22 000 ex-SWATF and Koevoet members before they were decommissioned at independence. In 1992, the South African government paid over N$36 million to ex-soldiers. The Namibian government decided to divide up this amount into three parts: N$12 million went to ex-SWATF and Koevoet members; N$12 million went to former PLAN fighters; and N$12 million went into the Development Brigade. Jabulani stressed that no ex-SWATF or Koevoet member has been taken up in the now defunct Development Brigade. Jaars said: ‘I salute ex-security forces for their discipline and peacefulness. For 22 years they have said not a word although we saw that money was channelled into just one direction.’
