Katima mulilo: War veterans in the Zambezi Region recalled the heroic death of the first commander of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), Tobias Hainyeko, who was shot and killed at Katima Mulilo in 1967. Hainyeko was killed on 18 May 1967 in an exchange of gunfire with the enemy at close range.

According to Namibia Press Agency, former Zambezi Governor Lawrence Sampofu, shortly before independence in 1989, was tasked to investigate where Hainyeko was killed and where his body was buried. Sampofu on Friday afternoon took a team of Nampa journalists around the site near Namwi Island on the banks of the Zambezi River, where Hainyeko was killed and his body loaded into a vehicle by members of the South African colonial regime. ‘That was the last time his body was seen. We still do not know where they took it. We tried to talk to the black police officers who were with the white South African police officers, and still they did not tell us anything that assisted in finding his grave,’ said Sampofu.

Hainyeko had driven from Lusaka before his death to Katima Mulilo to fetch one of his soldiers, Moses Nganate, who was shot and injured in a battle west of the Zambezi Region, explained Sampofu who is a former PLAN combatant.

Another ex-PLAN combatant, Patrick Mwampole, who doubles as mobiliser of the former PLAN combatants’ association in Zambezi, said Hainyeko’s death still saddens many war veterans here. The same happened to the late Brendan Simbwaye who was the vice president of the Swapo Party, and whose body is still not known where the enemies kept or buried it, added Mwampole.

Both Sampofu and Mwampole are adamant that one day the government will erect a shrine in the region where war heroes of the liberation struggle will be listed up and honoured there, assimilating it to the Heroes’ Acre in the capital. The Heroes’ Day commemoration this year will take place on Tuesday at the Katima Mulilo Sports Stadium.