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The Covert War: Koevoet Operations in Namibia, 1979-1989

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Counter-insurgency warfare has never been a lounge sport, and good counter-insurgency forces are always quick to be marked as the vilans. This book shows how the South African Police, during the late 70's deceided to fight SWAPO on its own terms. A fighting vehicle capable of withstanding small arms fire and landmines was developed. This new Vehicle, the Casspir, was armed and gave the Police mobility and fire power. Every vehicle was manned by a Car Commander (initially a white South African) and 8-10 black special policeman. Casspirs worked in groups of 4 and was supported by a logistic vehicle. Operations ussaully lasted a week to 2 weeks in the bush. Leads where followed and as soon as track where picked up, the Wambo trackers started following the tracks. The end result was in most cases a violent but uneven shootout, between the SWAPO insurgents and the 40 odd policeman and their heavily armed fighting vehicles. Needless to say the international press and anti-South African lobby were soon to brand the Policemen as the vilans. What this book is doing, is to tell the story about policemen doing soldier's jobs. No mercy was given by both sides, and black and white fought and died together to resist the communist onslaught from Angola, being run under the blanket of African nationalism. Fortunately the cold war ended and the communist approach died with it. Today Namibia is a independant and prosperous country, but if it was not for these brave Policemen Namibia could have looked much different from what it is now. Reading the book also raises a number of questions. Why did SWAPO invaded Namibia in 1989? Why did SWAPO after 15 years of independance not claimed it's dead from the mass graves they were buried in? How big was the intimidation before and during the 1990 elections? It seems it must have been substantial. Firstly huge numbers of the Wambo people supporting the Police and volunteering to fight SWAPO & weeks later everybody voteing for SWAPO!!! This a unique book in its approach and a must read for people with a tac for military history and tactics- although these men where mostly policemen. This book also gives a face to ordaniry policemen, not being interested in politics but rather in doing an outstanding and committed job. There is also another side to the Namibian Border War. Read this book and experience what you did not read in the Anti-Apartheid literature.

This book, the third in a trilogy (The Silent War and Warfare by Other Means), stands alone as a masterful account of South Africa's operations to quell the insurgency in Namibia between 1967 and 1989 and provides an in depth hundred page description of events between March 31st, 1989 and April 9th, 1989 when 1,700 SWAPO guerillas invaded Namibia on the eve of independence.

This book is a personal account dealing with individuals that fought in Namibia and the story is based almost entirely on interviews with key participants such as the founder of Koevet, Lt-general Hans Dreyer. A huge number of people were interviewed and this means that much of the storytelling is as close to being there as possible for the reader. This is not an academic book, it is an adventure from the first page to the last presenting, in the end, the history of Namibia during this period and presenting text-book lessons in counter-insurgency warfare that many nations could well learn from. Excellent color pictures complete the story.

The story begins with the "stirring of black nationalism" in Northern Namibia, known as Owamboland because of the tribe that resided there. With the Portuguese flight from Angola, Operation Savannah and the intervention of South Africa and Cuba in that country in 1974 the `frontline' of insurgency now came to the doorstep of Namibia which was being administered by South Africa. The first counter-insurgency school was opened in South Africa in 1968 but it was not until 1978 that `Operation K' or Koevet, Afrikaans for crowbar, would be put into action in Namibia to quell the insurgency launched by SWAPO guerillas. However what distinguished operations in Owamboland was the use of local black Africans to work alongside the South Africans. In addition the use of landmines by the guerillas necessitated the creation of special armored vehicles to deal with them. The book then becomes a story about operations in the north along the Angolan border. Maps and diagrams complete the stories so the reader is rarely lost and his attention is always drawn to what will happen next. Peter Stiff is a first class storyteller in this respect. This book is yet another masterpiece in his trilogy. Another must read for all South Africans.

Seth J. Frantzman