By Mashuna Timoteus
WINDHOEK – Not many Namibians know that Matias Ndakolo Mbulunganga once fought alongside the Angolan forces fighting for the liberation of their motherland before he joined Swapo and became a prolific member of the Peoples Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN).
In an interview conducted in 2009, he affirmed that his first military induction was with the MPLA thereafter, he joined Swapo to fight the apartheid regime. Ndakolo was born at Okagati village in 1943 in the former Ovamboland were he grew up until he joined the contract labour system as a farm worker at Grootfontein.
At the end of his first contract 18 months later, he went on another contract as a farm laborer in Tsumeb before he moved to Walvis Bay on yet another contract. In Walvis Bay, he came in contact with some of his fellow Namibians who were already busy mobilizing their fellow citizen to fight the South African colonial administration and this meant the beginning of Ndakolo’s political orientation and education. “In Walvis Bay, I met some of our elders such as Kenyatta, Sam Nuyoma and Mzee Kaukungwa who introduced us to politics. It did not take a long time for us to believe in their political education, because we were suffering a lot under the boers,” commended Ndakolo at the time. In 1959, he left Walvis Bay and went to the Kavango in search of another contract labour job. There he received a contract to go and work at a mine in Johannesburg for a period of 4 years. Disillusioned with the contract labour system he decided to join the MPLA and underwent military training in Tanzania followed by another two years military training in Algeria before he was deployed to the front as commander of detachment of B on the Angolan border between Zambia and Congo.
From the front Ndakolo returned to Lusaka in the company of one of his detachment commanders who needed medical treatment after he was wounded in a battle and since Swapo also had centres there, the opportunity presented itself to join Swapo. Perhaps driven by the desire to fight for his motherland, one day while in Lusaka Ndakolo left the Angolan MPLA army and joined Swapo. He ultimately became a member of the Swapo military wing and begun to conduct military operations inside Namibia around Katima Mulilo and sometimes crossing the Cuando River into Angola.
Giving an account of some of the successful operations he was involved in, Ndakolo noted that at one point a certain high ranking Boer commander came to Caprivi after he told South African president John (Johannes) Balthazar Vorster that he only needed a pistol and a dog to hunt down the Swapo terrorists, but rued to learn that it was the worst military undertaking one could ever attempt. “When that Boer and his group pursued us. We planted a landmine and we moved a few metres, before we laid an ambush. Only a short time passed, then we heard the noise of the landmine when it went off.
We came back to see and we found that the Boers including the one who said he will hunt us down with a pistol was gone,” reminisced the former PLAN combatant.
Throughout the years as a commander in the liberation struggle, Ndakolo has proven to be a fearless combatant and one of vey few men who felt so comfortable that he could sing, while firing at enemy targets and at the same time ducking enemy bullets. “Since I started fighting I never encountered any difficulties. I loved fighting the Boers. During that time when you find me in the middle of the war I would be singing, because I hated the Boers. I always remember how they used to treat us when we were working in the mines,” Ndakolo recalled.