Kawana slams Zambezi breakaway push as betrayal of liberation heroes

Former minister of home affairs, immigration, safety and security Albert Kawana has called recent Zambezi secessionist talks a betrayal of the region’s past heroes and war veterans.

“It is a waste of time and a betrayal of the legacy of heroes from the region, such as Greenwell Matongo of Zambezi, who fought for liberation,” Kawana told The Namibian last week.

This comes amid renewed calls from the United Democratic Party (UDP) at Katima Mulilo to separate the Zambezi region from the rest of the country.

The calls have been echoed by exiled UDP leader Mishake Muyongo.

Meanwhile, Ben Siyambango, the head of the Movement for the Survival of the River Races in Zambesia, has called on the government to find an amicable solution to the Caprivi Strip squabbles.

Siyambango last week said the UDP group is not secessionist, but is asking for the legal instrument that authorised Namibia to govern the former German protectorate, South West Africa.

“The issue of that place requires resolution. Using military force or the police, whatever, it won’t work in the long run. The matter must be objectively discussed to come to some sort of understanding.

“You know, that place was historically never part of the name of this country (Namibia),” he said.

Siyambango said Namibia and South Africa must rectify the mistake made in 1990 to hand the protectorate over to the Swapo-led government.

“It seems South Africa merely handed over the additional strip of South West Africa to Namibia. All we need, really, is to have a legal instrument like that one on Walvis Bay,” he said.

Siyambango cited several maps of South West Africa drawn in 1894 which do not show the strip being part of the larger German territory. One of the maps also shows the Hambukushu land as part of the Caprivi Strip.

“The Hambukushu people are unfortunate because eastern Kavango is part of this. From Mashare up to the Gwaii River it is Zambesia. Botswana too needs to reconsider its position,” he said.

WHICH LEGAL INSTRUMENT?

Human rights activist Phil ya Nangoloh also questions the legality of Namibia governing the Caprivi Strip.

“Namibia must explain how and when or in terms of which legal instrument it acquired the Caprivi Strip,” he says.

Ya Nangoloh claims that the Caprivi Zipfel was legally never part of the Deutsche Schützgebiet in the English German Protectorate of South West Africa, or the German colony of South West Africa, which became Namibia on 21 March 1990.

“The territory over which the League of Nations’ mandate was given to Britain on 17 December 1920 in terms of Article 22 of both the Treaty of Versailles of 28 June 1919 and the covenant of the League of Nations of January 1920 was specifically mentioned as the territory which formerly constituted the German Protectorate of South West Africa, which must not be confused with German South West Africa.

“Read paragraph 3 of the League of Nation’s mandate for South West Africa of 17 December 1920,” he says.

Ya Nangoloh says the Caprivi Strip, like the Crown Colony of Bechuanaland, which is now part of the former Cape Province of the Union of Africa, the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland, Basutuland (now Lesotho) and Swaziland (now Eswatini) were all British overseas territories directly governed from London by the British high commissioner to either the Union of South Africa, the Federation of Rhodesia, and Nyasaland or Bechuanaland.

“As a mandated territory, South West Africa was run by the Union of South Africa (which was at the time a British colony) on behalf of Britain,” he says.

Last week, executive director of information and communication technology Audrin Mathe said the Zambezi will remain an integral part of Namibia’s sovereign territory.

‘PEACEFUL INDEPENDENCE’

Muyongo is quoted in recent media as saying his goal was to get the Caprivi Strip free and independent peacefully.

He urged president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to uphold the merger agreement of 1964, which he says founding president Sam Nujoma signed on behalf of Swapo and the Caprivi African National Union.

“She must be bold enough, tackle the problem of the Caprivi … tackle the bull by the horn; solve the problem of the Caprivi. It will remain nagging as long as I live,” he said.

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