By Rihupisa
Kandando, PhD
HITJEVI Veii was born in the occupied Namibia, in Kalkveld on January 18, 1939, went to Epukiro at age of three, together with one of his younger brothers Katjimuina Veii and attended school at Epukiro where his father was also a teacher.
He grew up in the occupied Namibia, whose South African mandate over it was found to work in contravention with terms and conditions, and which later was terminated by the United Nations. The South African presence in Namibia was later declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Being a member of a human species that was oppressed, and in fulfillment of Marxist notion of dialectical materialism that presupposes “where there is an oppression, there is always bound to be resistance”, Veii started his political career as a dialectical response to the oppression and exploitation of that time.
He attended Augustineum Training College, where he was also a representative of the leftist papers from South Africa such as New Age and Fighting Talk before they were banned from the college in 1958. His involvement led to his expulsion from the college in 1959.
Veii, as part of the younger generation that abhorred tribalism, joined the South West Africa Progressive Association (SWAPA), which, among other things, aimed at the destruction of tribalism and the promotion of cultural, political and economic advancement of the Namibian people.
It was in the many group discussions of SWAPA that the idea of a national liberation movement was conceived. This was to be purely political in nature, as distinguished from the cultural and social nature of SWAPA.
When it was realised that the deputations and petitions that were circulating in the political geometry (Namibia-Pretoria-New York) were not yielding any fruits, Veii became a founder member of the South West African National Union (SWANU) when it was formed on September 27, 1959, in the Old Location of Windhoek, to put the liberation politics, as opposed to decolonisation politics, on the agenda.
He served as SWANU organising secretary during 1961-1962, and as president during 1968-1982. At the party’s extraordinary congress of September 1984, he was elected director of the politburo and at the 8th National Congress of the Party in July 1988, as the first vice-president in charge of politburo affairs and national unity and then again as party president from September 1993-1998 in the post-independent Namibia.
After the birth of national politics, he was involved in the event of December 10, 1959, the “Namibian Sharpeville Massacre” when the Gestapo-like South Africa Police gunned down Namibian people. Veii and David Meroro went to the Hosea Kutako International Airport to collect late Oliver Tambo from Mandela & Oliver Tambo law firm, who was not allowed to disembark at the airport by the racist Pretoria regime.
Veii (Accused No. 15) with other 22 Namibian freedom fighters were arrested on July 20, 1962, and appeared before Magistrate JH Krige (State vs Levi Komomungondo and Others, Case No: 662/1962) on political grounds and were fined R30.00 or 60 days imprisonment.
Prior to his arrest in 1966, he was subjected to constant harassment by the colonial power. Firstly, he used to receive letters from the police presumably as coming from Umkonto we Sizwe (ANC fighters) inviting him to attend meetings where plans were to be made to sabotage installations in Namibia. He received three such letters to which he did not respond because there were no forwarding addresses.
Veii wrote the following: “I was convinced that a professional outfit like Umkondo we Sizwe will not write such stupid letters. Because I did not respond, they sent an agent who professed to come from Umkondo we Sizwe and wanted to meet me in person.”
Arrest, Detention and Imprisonment
Veii mobilised the Namibian people on December 4, 1966, inter alia to demand the whereabouts of Jason Mutumbulua, Jonas Ya Otto and Nathanael Maxuilili, who after the first bullets against the white settler descendants of Jan Van Riebeeck at Omu-gulugwombashe Battle of August 26, 1966, were kidnapped and secretly taken to South Africa by the racist regime.
He was arrested at work on December 6, 1966, and charged with sabotage under the Sabotage Act 76 of 1962, as amended by Act 62 of 1966 and taken by air to Pretoria for detention.
At the police headquarter in Pretoria, he was assaulted for hours on end, and at about 22h00 he was hanged for the rest of the night and the following night his arms were stiff and he could not even use them. It was at the police station where he met Mutumbulua and Ya Otto, who were brought in for assault every day. At the New Locks Prison in Pretoria, he was placed in the same cell as the late Ya Otto and Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo.
At that prison he also met late Werner Mamugwe and late Paramount Chief of the Ovaherero, Kuaima Riruako, who were kidnapped and brought to South Africa by the secret police and later released and abandoned at Kasikili Island in the swamps.
Late Hitjevi Veii tried very hard to be sent back to Namibia for trial, and after a forceful letter to the South African Minister of Justice to respect his Namibian citizenship, he was sent back to Namibia for trial.
From Pretoria New Locks Prison, he was flown by air to Windhoek airport and from there by car to Keetmanshoop for two to three weeks before being transferred to Swakopmund for trial.
He was represented by Advocate Brian O’Linn, who later became a Supreme Court judge after Namibia’s independence.
He was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. He spent his five years sentence at the Pretoria New Locks Maximum Security Prison in solitary confinement for one year and four years at Robben Island. He was released in 1972.