Legal representation in lacuna: The Namibian Legal Resources Centre, Southern Africa Project, and the trial of the Cassinga detainees

Abstract

ABSTRACT In late 1978, South African Defence Force troops raided southern Angola's Cassinga settlement. They rounded up dozens of alleged SWAPO-PLAN combatants and held some for more than a decade. The resulting legal battles put to the test lawyering skills in both southern Africa and the United States, and they undermined the apartheid state's ability to crush dissent. This article considers the lens of the Cassinga detainee crisis to assess how South African, Namibian and American lawyers utilised American case law in South African courts. It begins with a brief discussion of the history of the involved parties and continues to discuss the saga and its outcomes. Both the South African state and its opposition viewed Cassinga's battles as central to exercising power in Namibia, and this demonstrates the centrality of the law and legal mechanisms to dismantling apartheid. It highlights the degree to which the law proved a useful tool for liberation movements to ensure the continuation of political dissent within South Africa, withstanding public repression of the 1980s. Ultimately, it regards the Cassinga case as representative of many that kept open dialogue between the South African state, liberation movements and the international community.