Occupation Lawyer, Activist Name Anton Lubowski Known for SWAPO activist Role Advocate | Spouse(s) Gabriele (Gaby) Children Nadia and Almo Party SWAPO | |
 | ||
Full Name Anton Theodor Eberhard August Lubowski Born February 3, 1952 ( 1952-02-03 ) Luderitz, Namibia Died September 12, 1989(1989-09-12) (aged 37)
Windhoek, Namibia Assassinated September 12, 1989, Windhoek, Namibia | ||
Education Stellenbosch University | ||
Anton Theodor Eberhard August Lubowski (3 February 1952 – 12 September 1989) was a Namibian anti-apartheid activist and advocate. He was a member of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO). In 1989 he was assassinated by operatives of South Africa’s Civil Cooperation Bureau.
Contents
Education and early life
Lubowski attended Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, South Africa. He then did a year of military training with the South African Defence Force in Pretoria, before attending Stellenbosch University for law and the University of Cape Town for a LLB.
Political career
As an advocate he was a member of the Windhoek Bar. He defended political prisoners and got involved with the Namibian trade union movement in the capacity of Secretary of Finance and Administration of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW). He joined SWAPO officially in 1984. Before 1989 he had no official party position but he made frequently public statements on behalf of SWAPO. He initiated the NAMLAW Project, a legal research organisation to draft legislation for Namibia after independence. He received the Austrian Bruno Kreisky Prize for Services to Human Rights. As a SWAPO activist he was detained six times by the South African authorities. In 1989 he became Deputy Secretary for Finance and Administration in the SWAPO Election Directorate. Shortly before his death he became a member of the SWAPO Central Committee. He was murdered in front of his home in Windhoek, presumably by a South African hit squad (probably by an Irish mercenary, Donald Acheson - not to be confused with Sir Donald Acheson KBE) during the independence election campaign on 12 September 1989.
Assassination
In the evening of 12 September 1989, Lubowski was shot by a group of assailants in front of his house in Sanderburg Street in central Windhoek. He was hit by several shots from an AK-47 automatic rifle and died from a bullet wound to his head.
In the media
The life of Anton Lubowski is described in a book written by his widow Gabrielle Lubowski in her self-published novel On Solid Ground. Lubowski's assassination forms the background of a fictitious killing spree in Bernhard Jaumann's novel The Hour of the Jackal.