The covert war : Koevoet operations, Namibia 1979-1989

This is the detailed history of the elite policing unit operated by the South African forces on its Namibian border during the 1980s.

In 1978, the counter insurgency war on the Angolan/SWA Namibian border was going badly for the South Africans.

SWAPO was gaining the upper hand, so the South Africans decided to organise an elite commando-security unit based on the famed Rhodesian Selous Scouts.

The unit was handed the Top Secret Project Koevoet ("crowbar") to provide operational intelligence by capturing & interrogating insurgents, but its commander came to realise that Namibia was different to the Rhodesian situation.

So, the team reverted to basic police work, building informer networks, recruiting black police officers and skilled trackers.

In its ten year existence, Koevoet fought in 1,615 encounters and took 3,225 prisoners - the equivalent of almost six battalions of troops.

But, after heroically repelling SWAPO's invasion of Namibia in April 1989 (under direct authority from the United Nations) the unit was ignominiously disbanded and its black members disgracefully abandoned to take their chances at the hands of their former SWAPO enemies.