Talk of break-away move if S.W.A.P.O. wins power

Press, 3 April 1989, Page 10

Talk of break-away move if S.W.A.P.O. wins power

NZPA-AFP Rehoboth, Namibia A small, mixed-race community of some 30,000 people is threatening to declare its own “independence” in Namibia if the main blacknationalist party, 5.W.A.P.0., comes to power in a United Nationssupervised poll scheduled for November. The threat has come from Rehoboth’s local government chief, Kaptein Johannes “Hans” Diergaardt, whose defiance of the independence scheduled under United Nations resolution 435 is an illustration of the complexity of the Namibian scene.

The Basters (from the Afrikaans word for “bastard”) are one of 11 ethnic groups — there are nine black tribes, two mixed-race communities, and the whites.

Descended from whites and black slaves in South Africa’s Cape Province in the seventeenth century, the Basters are proud of their onceinsulting name.

They established themselves in what is now central Namibia in 1868. buying their land from a black chieftain in exchange for 50 waggons and 100 horses. “We started as a nation in 1780,” said Mr Diergaardt, aged 61. “We have made of Rehoboth one of the most prosperous parts of the country — and then comes 435.”

He was not opposed to independence, but was sure the direct universal suffrage elections in a unitary state laid down by resolution 435 would result in the “catastrophe” of an Ovambo Government,

which would oppress the other ethnic groups. The Ovambos inhabit the north of Namibia, along the border with Angola and comprise a good half of

the territory’s 1.3 million people. Moreover, they fully control the South West Africa People’s Organisation, which has been waging a low-intensity bush war against South Africa since 1966, and is universally expected to win the November elections. “We want to get rid of South Africa, but we don’t want a new boss,” Mr Diergaardt said.

If a S.W.A.P.O. Government refused to negotiate, “we are going to withdraw from Namibia and form a republic,” he said, adding that the Basters would take up arms if necessary.