New street names spark demands for Lubango apology
The City of Windhoek says the renaming of two streets in honour of freedom fighters Simon Ndapewa Sisingi Hiskia and Ulrich Jackson Paulino was not their decision and is not associated with the men's reported torture and death in the Lubango dungeons.
The notorious Lubango dungeons were where individuals suspected of spying on Swapo were purportedly subjected to torture.
City of Windhoek spokesperson Lydia Amutenya clarified that the municipality did not decide on the street names. “Instead, these applications were submitted through channels,” she said.
Amutenya was responding to questions by Namibian Sun following a statement made by Breaking the Wall of Silence (BWS) acting chairperson Oiva Angula on the new street names.
Apologise
The municipality conducted a ceremony to name and rename 17 streets in honour of various individuals on 17 May, including Hiskia and Paulino.
Subsequently, Angula issued a statement praising the municipality for honouring the two, who he said had died in the dungeons and deserved recognition.
Angula also called on the ruling party to extend an official and direct apology to the victims and their families without further delay.
“It is time for Swapo to come out and have an honest and serious conversation about the 'spy drama' and what was happening in Swapo in exile before independence,” he said.
Amutenya explained that the application for naming a street after Hiskia (Road 2) was motivated by the Township Developer for Rocky Crest Extension 4, and in the documentation and motivations submitted with the naming applications, there is no reference to Lubango dungeons.
“The application for renaming Sin Street after Ulrich Paulino was motivated by a family member on behalf of the family,” she said.
Reckon with the past
In his statement, Angula said the BWS “wholeheartedly and unreservedly welcomes the decision. What a good way to honour and recognise those who are so deserving. We have always demanded the memorialisation of the hundreds of innocent victims as one of the critical aspects of the consolidation of transitional justice in Namibia.”
He added that without proper engagement with the past and the institutionalisation of remembrance, societies are condemned to repeat, re-enact and relive the horror.
Angula described Hiskia as a first-class and adored football administrator who was born in Grootfontein in 1942. He said that in 1962, Hiskia was expelled from the Augustineum High School in Okahandja for his political activism against apartheid colonial rule.
By 1979, following the Kranzburg bomb blast, he said the apartheid authorities suspected that his vehicle was used to transport the guerrillas who planted the bomb.
“As a result, his vehicle was impounded and later sold at auction. He went into hiding and eventually escaped the country out of fear he might be accused and sentenced in terms of the Terrorism Act, No. 83 of 1967, in that he had rendered assistance to a person or persons to be believed to be 'terrorists'.”
Paulino was a young guard of the Namibia Catholic Youth League (Nacayul) in Windhoek, a skilled marimba player and an ardent Nanso activist, Angula said.
He was part of the class of 1988 that directly confronted the colonial administration by mobilising and organising students and the general populace against colonialism, foreign domination and the repressive education system.
“Paulino’s fate is similar to that of another famous Nanso leader, Johannes Axab Hendricks, who was detained by South African security police and shortly thereafter left Windhoek and crossed the border to join the liberation movement in exile in Angola. Axab was never seen again. He was detained and was disappeared after interrogation by the security apparatus of the liberation movement that was in the vortex of a murderous paranoia about spies, especially with regard to young educated southerners,” Angula wrote.
Find closure
He said that as a movement striving to find closure to the human rights violations committed by Swapo, BWS believes it is a good sign and a hopeful flicker of light that those who died under horrible circumstances while falsely accused of being spies are recognised and memorialised with the naming of streets after them. He said the street names act as a recognition of their role in the struggle for independence and for having sacrificed their invaluable lives at the hands of their own comrades.
Angula said the two have now joined the other three freedom fighters who were killed in the Lubango dungeons and memorialised in the same way as Tauno Hatuikulipi, Pejavi Munjaro and Victor Nkandi.
Questions sent to Swapo Party secretary general Sophia Shaningwa went unanswered. Swapo elder Nahas Angula said he has been on retirement since 2015 and could not respond.
– [email protected]
The notorious Lubango dungeons were where individuals suspected of spying on Swapo were purportedly subjected to torture.
City of Windhoek spokesperson Lydia Amutenya clarified that the municipality did not decide on the street names. “Instead, these applications were submitted through channels,” she said.
Amutenya was responding to questions by Namibian Sun following a statement made by Breaking the Wall of Silence (BWS) acting chairperson Oiva Angula on the new street names.
Apologise
The municipality conducted a ceremony to name and rename 17 streets in honour of various individuals on 17 May, including Hiskia and Paulino.
Subsequently, Angula issued a statement praising the municipality for honouring the two, who he said had died in the dungeons and deserved recognition.
Angula also called on the ruling party to extend an official and direct apology to the victims and their families without further delay.
“It is time for Swapo to come out and have an honest and serious conversation about the 'spy drama' and what was happening in Swapo in exile before independence,” he said.
Amutenya explained that the application for naming a street after Hiskia (Road 2) was motivated by the Township Developer for Rocky Crest Extension 4, and in the documentation and motivations submitted with the naming applications, there is no reference to Lubango dungeons.
“The application for renaming Sin Street after Ulrich Paulino was motivated by a family member on behalf of the family,” she said.
Reckon with the past
In his statement, Angula said the BWS “wholeheartedly and unreservedly welcomes the decision. What a good way to honour and recognise those who are so deserving. We have always demanded the memorialisation of the hundreds of innocent victims as one of the critical aspects of the consolidation of transitional justice in Namibia.”
He added that without proper engagement with the past and the institutionalisation of remembrance, societies are condemned to repeat, re-enact and relive the horror.
Angula described Hiskia as a first-class and adored football administrator who was born in Grootfontein in 1942. He said that in 1962, Hiskia was expelled from the Augustineum High School in Okahandja for his political activism against apartheid colonial rule.
By 1979, following the Kranzburg bomb blast, he said the apartheid authorities suspected that his vehicle was used to transport the guerrillas who planted the bomb.
“As a result, his vehicle was impounded and later sold at auction. He went into hiding and eventually escaped the country out of fear he might be accused and sentenced in terms of the Terrorism Act, No. 83 of 1967, in that he had rendered assistance to a person or persons to be believed to be 'terrorists'.”
Paulino was a young guard of the Namibia Catholic Youth League (Nacayul) in Windhoek, a skilled marimba player and an ardent Nanso activist, Angula said.
He was part of the class of 1988 that directly confronted the colonial administration by mobilising and organising students and the general populace against colonialism, foreign domination and the repressive education system.
“Paulino’s fate is similar to that of another famous Nanso leader, Johannes Axab Hendricks, who was detained by South African security police and shortly thereafter left Windhoek and crossed the border to join the liberation movement in exile in Angola. Axab was never seen again. He was detained and was disappeared after interrogation by the security apparatus of the liberation movement that was in the vortex of a murderous paranoia about spies, especially with regard to young educated southerners,” Angula wrote.
Find closure
He said that as a movement striving to find closure to the human rights violations committed by Swapo, BWS believes it is a good sign and a hopeful flicker of light that those who died under horrible circumstances while falsely accused of being spies are recognised and memorialised with the naming of streets after them. He said the street names act as a recognition of their role in the struggle for independence and for having sacrificed their invaluable lives at the hands of their own comrades.
Angula said the two have now joined the other three freedom fighters who were killed in the Lubango dungeons and memorialised in the same way as Tauno Hatuikulipi, Pejavi Munjaro and Victor Nkandi.
Questions sent to Swapo Party secretary general Sophia Shaningwa went unanswered. Swapo elder Nahas Angula said he has been on retirement since 2015 and could not respond.
– [email protected]
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