Koevoet
|
Koevoet Operation K Police Counter-Insurgency Unit |
|
 Koevoet Memorial at the Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria |
|
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | January 1979 |
| Preceding agency |
|
| Dissolved | November 1989 |
| Superseding agency | |
| Type | Paramilitary |
| Jurisdiction |
 South-West Africa
|
| Headquarters | Oshakati, Oshana Region |
| Employees | 1,000 (c. 1985) |
| Ministers responsible | |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency |
South West African Police
|
The Koevoet ([ˈkufut], translated to crowbar, abbreviated Operation K or SWAPOL-COIN) was a major paramilitary organisation under South African-administered South-West Africa, now the Republic of Namibia. It was an active belligerent in the Namibian War of Independence from 1979 to 1990 - "Crowbar" being a popular allusion to successful attempts at prying insurgents from the local population. Created by South African Police Brigadier Hans Dreyer, a veteran of the Rhodesian Special Air Service, the unit's initial directive was to conduct internal reconnaissance. Koevoet quickly became one of the most effective combat forces deployed against the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) during the war. Consisting of some 250 white and 800 black Ovambo operators, it has also been held responsible for committing human rights violations against civilians. After killing or capturing some 3,225 guerrillas and fighting an estimated 1,615 engagements, Koevoet, along with the South-West Africa Police, was disbanded in Namibia after 1989.
At the end of World War I, the former German South-West Africa was granted to South Africa as a mandated territory through the League of Nations. By the 1960s, however, much of Africa was embroiled in a struggle for independence from colonial powers such as Belgium, Great Britain, France, and Portugal. In the southern subcontinent, where many indigenous tribes had been pushed off their lands by settled Europeans, the political situation was particularly explosive. Then governed by its apartheid administration, South Africa watched with concern as low intensity conflicts and guerrilla warfare in neighbouring countries ousted traditional white regimes, often replacing them with Marxist-oriented single party states such as those in Zambia, Angola, and Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia).
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