Today marks 45 years since the Cassinga massacre, during which about 600 Namibians died.
President Hage Geingob says it is not only a day to commemorate the selfless acts of sacrifice but also a day for Namibians to reaffirm patriotism and foster a true sense of pride and duty towards the nation.
The Cassinga massacre was executed by the apartheid South African military on May 4, 1978, when they ran an air strike on Camp Cassinga near the village of Cassinga in Angola.
The camp was inhabited by exiled SWAPO sympathisers and their families.
President Geingob says the objective of the apartheid forces was to instill fear and discourage the continuation of Namibia’s liberation struggle under the leadership of the Swapo Party.
However, he says, these acts only strengthened the unity, solidarity, and resolve of Namibians to continue fighting for Namibia’s total liberation from colonialism and apartheid.
The President noted that the Cassinga massacre became one of the many rivers of blood that Namibians crossed towards freedom for all.
This, he says, was in line with the proclamation by the late PLAN Commander, Peter Eneas Nanyemba, that "We had to cross many rivers of blood before achieving our freedom."
The Head of State also cast his mind back just a few days before the massacre, when he was on his way to join the comrades at the Cassinga Training Centre, following then President Sam Nujoma’s directive that all Swapo leaders be trained militarily.
Dr. Geingob travelled from Lusaka, Zambia, to Lubango, Angola, and awaited his transport to Cassinga.
He says one comrade, a nurse that everyone called Dr. Shinyafa, arrived with a truck but refused to take him to Cassinga.
Dr. Shiyafa argued that it was too late and that travelling at night was unsafe.
The then 33-year-old Geingob protested vehemently, but Dr. Shinyafa stood his ground and refused, he says.
That refusal saved Geingob’s life, as only after a few days was the Cassinga camp attacked by apartheid military forces.
The President says, therefore, that today many like him not only deeply appreciate the depth and height of the sacrifices that fallen heroines and heroines have made but also understand the need to maintain the peace, unity, and freedom that those sacrifices brought.
He also wants Namibians to safeguard their hard-won freedom by rejecting all forms of hate speech, ethnicity, tribalism, racism, and divisive language that incite violence.
On Cassinga Day, as the country pays tribute to fallen heroes and survivors, Dr. Geingob reiterated the need to commit to working together to bring about economic transformation in Namibia in the same spirit of unity of purpose and camaraderie as One Namibia and One Nation.