Former SWATF soldiers join ‘gold rush’

CLOSE to 5 000 former South West Africa Territory Force members have parted with N$55 each on the flimsy promise of receiving N$65 000 each in addition to a life-time pension.

Around 4 800 former SWATF members had registered with the South African National Military Veterans Forum by Tuesday afternoon. A representative of the Forum, Ingrid Freeman, set up a temporary office at a house in Rehoboth to which hundreds of former SWATF members flocked from all corners of Namibia to register for the promised payouts.When The Namibian visited Freeman on Wednesday, several former SWATF members were at the house hoping to receive the thousands that the organisation had promised them.Some men had come from as far as Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Opuwo and Rundu to register.Freeman, born in Rehoboth but a resident of Upington, South Africa, for the last 17 years, said she was just “helping” the former SWATF members to fill in forms and to get them to Upington to a certain Isaack Links.Links is believed to be the brains behind the scheme and is being assisted by a certain GA Domingo.Domingo told The Namibian from Upington that he was not interested in sharing the information with the media because “it would be twisted”.”You guys in Namibia twist the things.The best is for the former soldiers to make up their minds or not to approach us.Newspapers sell propaganda,” he said.Domingo said the deadline for registration was September 25 and that his organisation was asking for a N$30 “processing fee”.When it was put to him that Freeman was asking for N$55, Domingo was surprised, but quickly responded that the additional charges could be to cover her costs for faxes and calls to South Africa.During the two hours that The Namibian spent at the Rehoboth house, Freeman kept on telling callers that she was not taking any applications by fax, nor was she able to fax them the forms.She told them that she had no time to waste on the phone as she was swamped with work and instead demanded that they come to Rehoboth in person.There is no guarantee that the ex-soldiers will get the money and they did not get receipts to verify that they paid the money to Freeman.Just by processing the 4 800 applications, Freeman would have collected a cool N$120 000 [from the N$25 difference between the N$30 and N$55].She told The Namibian that she was doing it for free because she loved her people at Rehoboth.Those who applied for registration did so with mixed feelings.While some were optimistic that they would get money, others were unsure about the outcome.Others expressed concern that they had to provide their bank details on the forms.After completing the forms, one excited former soldier even called friends in other parts of the country to encourage them travel to the southern town.Minibuses travelling between Rehoboth and Windhoek had field days dropping passengers off at the house while several old people also turned up to apply on behalf of their late sons.Freeman told people that she would be in Rehoboth only until Sunday and encouraged them to come in person soon.Domingo declined to say when the payouts were expected or to mention amounts.”It won’t be long.We had a meeting with the South African government today,” he said.The intention is to get as many applications as possible and to put pressure on Pretoria to provide money to the former soldiers.The South African National Military Veterans Forum, based in Kimberley, claims that around 161 000 former soldiers have registered with them so far.It would bring the amount that they have collected to more than N$4,8 million.However, the SA High Commission in Windhoek said it was not aware of any payouts that were imminent for former SWATF members in Namibia.A representative of the Forum, Ingrid Freeman, set up a temporary office at a house in Rehoboth to which hundreds of former SWATF members flocked from all corners of Namibia to register for the promised payouts.When The Namibian visited Freeman on Wednesday, several former SWATF members were at the house hoping to receive the thousands that the organisation had promised them.Some men had come from as far as Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Opuwo and Rundu to register.Freeman, born in Rehoboth but a resident of Upington, South Africa, for the last 17 years, said she was just “helping” the former SWATF members to fill in forms and to get them to Upington to a certain Isaack Links.Links is believed to be the brains behind the scheme and is being assisted by a certain GA Domingo.Domingo told The Namibian from Upington that he was not interested in sharing the information with the media because “it would be twisted”.”You guys in Namibia twist the things.The best is for the former soldiers to make up their minds or not to approach us.Newspapers sell propaganda,” he said.Domingo said the deadline for registration was September 25 and that his organisation was asking for a N$30 “processing fee”.When it was put to him that Freeman was asking for N$55, Domingo was surprised, but quickly responded that the additional charges could be to cover her costs for faxes and calls to South Africa.During the two hours that The Namibian spent at the Rehoboth house, Freeman kept on telling callers that she was not taking any applications by fax, nor was she able to fax them the forms.She told them that she had no time to waste on the phone as she was swamped with work and instead demanded that they come to Rehoboth in person.There is no guarantee that the ex-soldiers will get the money and they did not get receipts to verify that they paid the money to Freeman.Just by processing the 4 800 applications, Freeman would have collected a cool N$120 000 [from the N$25 difference between the N$30 and N$55].She told The Namibian that she was doing it for free because she loved her people at Rehoboth.Those who applied for registration did so with mixed feelings.While some were optimistic that they would get money, others were unsure about the outcome.Others expressed concern that they had to provide their bank details on the forms.After completing the forms, one excited former soldier even called friends in other parts of the country to encourage them travel to the southern town.Minibuses travelling between Rehoboth and Windhoek had field days dropping passengers off at the house while several old people also turned up to apply on behalf of their late sons.Freeman told people that she would be in Rehoboth only until Sunday and encouraged them to come in person soon.Domingo declined to say when the payouts were expected or to mention amounts.”It won’t be long.We had a meeting with the South African government today,” he said.The intention is to get as many applications as possible and to put pressure on Pretoria to provide money to the former soldiers.The South African National Military Veterans Forum, based in Kimberley, claims that around 161 000 former soldiers have registered with them so far.It would bring the amount that they have collected to more than N$4,8 million.However, the SA High Commission in Windhoek said it was not aware of any payouts that were imminent for former SWATF members in Namibia.