The mostly untold story of Koevoet – the South African Police’s highly successful counter-insurgency unit. Initially based on the Selous Scouts of Rhodesia, it was formed in 1979 and deployed in Namibia until independence in 1989 when it was disbanded as a sop to the UN.

During its almost ten year existence it fought in 1 615 contacts and killed or captured 3 225 of SWAPO’s PLAN soldiers — the equivalent of almost six battalions of troops. But it paid a high price in blood and lost almost 160 policemen killed in action with another 949 wounded — more grievous casualties than any other South African fighting unit since World War II.

The Covert War is compelling reading. In 1978 the counter-insurgency war on the Angolan/SWA Namibian border was going badly for the South Africans. Externally the SADF was in control, but internally SWAPO was gaining the upper hand. The SAP Commissioner and SADF Chief met to find a solution. They decided to form a joint 5-Recce Commando/Security Branch organisation on the lines of the Rhodesian Selous Scouts. A highly experienced Security Branch officer, Col ‘Sterk’ [strong] Hans’ Dreyer, was despatched to Owamboland with five police officers. They were tasked under‘Top Secret’ Project Koevoet (crowbar) to find and provide operational intelligence for the Recces. But they needed the Recces to provide captures for interrogation, but they were heavily engaged in operations in Angola.

Col Dreyer came to realise that the situation in SWA/Namibia was completely different to the Rhodesian scene. What worked in Rhodesia wouldn’t necessarily work there. So his team reverted to basic police work, building informer networks and so on. A single arrest led to the smashing of SWAPO’s sabotage networks throughout the country. During one investigation three policemen, armed only with pistols, almost blundered into a large PLAN group which would have spelt their certain death. This narrow escape resulted in the recruitment of black special constables into units to protect the investigators. This led to a realisation of the astonishing tracking abilities of the Owambos. While tracking has been a tactic used by the military since time eternal, it had never become a strategy where it was always used — which is what happened with Koevoet. It led to the unit’s major expansion.

As with other insurgencies in southern Africa, the Security Forces were faced with a serious landmine threat. This problem for Koevoet was overcome when it was equipped with the remarkable mine-protected Casspirs. Combining their police investigational abilities and skills at getting information, the tracking abilities of their special constables, the landmine protection provided by their Casspirs — with the support of SAAF helicopter gunships — Koevoet emerged as the premier counter-insurgency unit in SWA/Namibia. It cut bloody swathes through PLAN’s internal organisation and tellingly acted in support of the army in southern Angola.

In its ten year existence it fought in 1 615 contacts and killed or captured 3 225 PLAN soldiers — the equivalent of almost six battalions of troops. But it paid a high price in blood and lost almost 160 policemen killed in action with another 949 wounded — more grievous casualties than any other South African fighting unit since World War II.

After heroically repelling SWAPO’s invasion of Namibia in April 1989 — while fighting under the direct authority of the Secretary-General of the United Nations — the unit was ignominiously disbanded and its black members disgracefully abandoned to take their chances at the unforgiving hands of their former SWAPO foes.

While this book is expressly focused on Koevoet, it is also the first full story of the internal border war in Namibia.

• 1 Rhodesia to Zimbabwe 1979-1980
• 2 Project Barnacle - SADF operations in Nimbabwe 1980
• 3 Assembly Point Mike fighting at Entumbane
• 4 Operation Mixer 1, SADF's Project Barnacle
• 5 Operation Gericke
• 6 Joshua Nkomo sacked
• 7 Operation Mute - SADF assistance to ZIPRA 1982
• 8 Operations in Zimbabwe Chief of Staff (intelligence) - Special Tasks Desk 1981-1982
• 9 Operation Mute SADF assistanc to ZIPRA continues 1982
• 10 SADF's Project Barnacle raid on Thornhill Airbase August 1982
• 11 Upsurge of ZIPRA activities, kidnap of tourists 1982
• 12 Operation Mute continues and ends, murder of white farmers 1983-1984
• 13 5-Brigade operational, War of Gukurahundi, genocide and crimes against humanity, Matabeleland North 1983
• 14 Clampdown on Joshua Nkomo 1983
• 15 5-Brigade War of Gukurahundi, attrocities and crimes against humanity, Matabeleland South 1984
• 16 Politics of intimidation, election run-up 1985-1985
• 17 Political enmity to unity, No political amity 1985-1986
• 18 Intervention in the Congo 1998-2000
• 19 Assault on press freedom
• 20 Question of land reform 1990-1999
• 21 Opposition to draft constitution 1999-2000
• 22 Emancipation to emasculation 1980-2000
• 23 Referendum aftermath, return to farm invasions, Februrary-March 2000
• 24 Peace marches and war veterans April 2000
• 25 Farm invasions, escalation of violence April 2000
• 26 Government-inspired anarchy May 2000
• 27 Zimbabwe and South Africa February-May 2000
• 28 Election countdown June 2000
• 29 After the poll was over June-August 2000.