Political Prisoners of South Africa Documentation Project
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Messack Victory
Imprisoned for Life
(Messack was released before we could manufacture his bracelet, but this is the biographical information we have.)

             Messack Victory was a member of SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organization);  the primary liberation movement in Namibia during its struggle for independence.  There were believed to be nearly 50 Namibian prisoners on Robben Island and it was claimed that almost as many again are in other prisons in South Africa.  There were 17 Namibians serving life sentences in South Africa, and were included in the Bracelet Program.

           Victory was captured and taken as a prisoner to Pretoria.  He was later brought back to Namibia for his trial and was accused Number 1 with seven others.  He was found guilty in the Windhoek Supreme Court in August 1969 of conspiring to overthrow the South West African administration by force to replace it with a SWAPO-led government.  He was sentenced to life imprisonment which he served on Robben Island.

            When he arrived on Robben Island, he found his comrades who had been arrested in 1966 in Namibia and flown secretly to Pretoria, South Africa.  They were held in detention until charged in 1967 under the South African Terrorism Act for conspiring to incite revolution and armed resistance to the administration in Namibia, receiving military training, encouraging others to do so, and entering Namibia armed to create violent revolution.  Of the 37 arrested and put on trial in Pretoria, fifteen were sentenced to life imprisonment and the others were given a 20 year prison sentence or less.  The United Nations condemned the 1967-1968 Terrorism trial as a violation of Namibia’s international status.


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The source of this biographical information is International Defence and Aid Fund’s book, Prisoners of Apartheid, 1978.  We appreciate their permission to use this material.
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