Joined OPO in 1959 and subsequently became a SWAPO member in 1960. He left MPLA and joined SWAPO military wing PLAN in 1964 in Lusaka, Zambia after the military training in Soviet Union 1963. He began conducting military operations in Namibia in the area of Katima Mulilo and across Cuando river in Angola. He was a founding PLAN commander of north-east front during the conflict.

He was later deployed to Kongwa in Tanzania where he served as an instructor and continued training new recruits with the opening of the Eastern Front in 1972. In December 1973, Mbulunganga was assigned on a mission to Angola to set up operational bases inside Namibia and mobilize people to join the liberation struggle.

He participated in the alleged PLAN attack on Kamenga (Kongola) in 1973 and various Eastern Front engagements at Luyana, Xamavera in the Cuando Cubango Province of Angola, as well as in Bwabwata in Namibia