‘Struggle kids’ take bridge, teargassed by Police

THE acrid smell of teargas saturated the air at Oshakati on Friday when Police and ‘children of the liberation struggle’ clashed.

The teargassing followed a five-hour standoff between the Police and about 500 ‘struggle children’ who had occupied Oshakati’s Kandjengedi Bridge demanding to see President Hifikepunye Pohamba. The demonstrators brought north-south traffic to a halt at the bridge. Police say they were forced to use teargas to disperse the demonstrators to open up the road. Speaking to The Namibian after the incident, the group’s spokesperson, John Malumbu, said some of their number had been injured in the Police action and had been taken to Oshakati State Hospital.Malumbu said some demonstrators had fainted as a result of the gas while others had been hit by the teargas canisters. He said among the demonstrators had been infants, but luckily none had been injured seriously.
The teargassing followed five hours of negotiations between the Police, mostly Special Field Force, commanded by Chief Inspector Karl Theron, and the ‘struggle children’ over the opening up of the bridge to traffic. The protesters refused and the Police, decked out in riot gear, opened up with teargas guns. The demonstrators had demanded to speak to President Pohamba, who was in the North to address a May Day rally at Ohangwena, to discuss their continued unemployment. The group of about 500 ‘struggle children’ has been camping out at Swapo’s Oshana headquarters at Oshakati.Group spokesperson Malumbu said although the Police tried to chase them away from both the bridge and the Swapo HQ, they would stay at the Swapo HQ till their employment demands are met. ‘If they do not want us then they have to bring us back to Angola where we were born or get our parents who died because of the liberation of this country alive again to take care of us,’ he said. ‘If not, we will continue demanding our rights of employment.’