Staff Reporter
FORMER members of the South West Africa Territorial Force and the then SWATF Police’s Koevoet unit, are angry with the leader of the Official Opposition, McHenry Venaani, for the remarks he made in parliament recently.
They said that in the past 34 years, they have proved beyond doubt that they are peace-loving citizens, but Venaani is now portraying them as a potential threat to state security.
Speaking in the National Assembly last week, Venaani, who is the president of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), asked the government to consider special options to meet the demands of former SWATF and Koevoet members as well as those of the struggle kids.
Venaani argued that if not met, such demands could be exploited by “terrorist groups” to destabilize Namibia.
It was the “terrorist” part of Venaani’s speech that angered the former soldiers.
Some former SWATF/Koevoet members spoke with Informante to make their voices heard.
“We were demobilized in 1989 and in the past 34 years, we have proved beyond doubt that we are not trouble-makers. We are peace-loving citizens. Venaani is tarnishing former soldiers merely to score political points,” said ex-soldier Pontius Antindi.
Those are also the views of Vaino Amuthenu, a former soldier who is now a CoD politician.
He said that the response by Defence Minister Frans Kapofi was appropriate.
Kapofi demanded that Venaani provide more details about those who might be trying to destabilize the country.
Amuthenu said: “That is correct. If Venaani is in possession of confidential, security-related information, he must pass it to the relevant defence and security organs of the state.”
He added that what made Venaani’s remarks utterly disappointing was that they came from the leader of a party that once “pretended to represent us but is now associating us with terrorists”.
The sentiments expressed by Antindi and Amuthenu were echoed by many others on a WhatsApp group for former SWATF/Koevoet members.
The group, which normally concentrates on the recollection of past experiences and mutual assistance, did erupt into an almost unanimous castigation of Venaani’s utterances.
