Catherine Sasman
27 July 2011
SECRETARY General of Swapo Party Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana said the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) should tell the nation what it knows about the Cassinga massacre without beating around the bush.
Responding to an allegation by Libolly Haufiku who, at an RDP meeting at Helao Nafidi in the Ohangwena region, said Swapo was forewarned about the 1978 attack. Iivula-Ithana suggested that RDP leader Hidipo Hamutenya, who was then the Swapo head of information, and Shapwa Kaukungwa, must have been privy to such information at the time.
“I was politically younger than them and could not have been privy to such information,” said Iivula-Ithana. “Hamutenya was responsible for information in Swapo. Maybe the RDP is sitting with someone who has such information,” she said.
Haufiku told a crowd over the weekend that information about the attack was relayed through Kaukungwa who was then Swapo’s representative in the United Kingdom.
Kaukungwa reportedly immediately informed the Swapo leadership about the impending attack, but that nothing was done.
Haufiku also said he had spoken to South African military commanders who informed him that the Swapo high command knew the attack was going to take place.
On Haufiku’s referral to the Lubango dungeon issue, Iivula-Ithana said the RDP “seems to be running out of issues”, and hence continually revisit the past.
“Namibia has moved on. We are dealing with the current situation. I have no time and no interest to go and dig in archives to find out that information,” said Iivula-Ithana. “It seems the RDP has a chip on its shoulder.”
AllAfrica – All the Time