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21 South African Infantry Battalion
21 South African Infantry Battalion is an infantry battalion of the South African Army. The unit has its origin as 21 Battalion, an apartheid era unit used to train black South African men as soldiers. History Origin In 1973 the apartheid government decided to train black soldiers.Engelbrecht, A Guide to the SANDF, 2007, Chapter 9C, p.8 On 21 January 1974, the Army Bantu Training Centre was established at Baviaanspoort, north of Pretoria. Sixteen recruits began basic training in March 1974 with another 38 men joining in August, now trained by the sixteen initial recruits. In April 1975, authority was given for blacks to attest in the then-Permanent Force. On 1 December 1975, the Army Bantu Training Centre became a self-accounting unit and moved to Lenz, south of Johannesburg. The centre was then renamed 21 Battalion on the 21st birthday of the South African Infantry Corps in 1975. Press releases during 1977 emphasised that these black soldiers would not be trained for South ...
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South African Infantry Corps
The South African Army Infantry Formation supervises all infantry within the South African Army. History Origins: Union Defence Force South African Infantry originated as the ''Infantry Branch'' of the Union Defence Forces in 1913. In 1915, the defence forces established the South African Overseas Expeditionary Force for war service outside Southern Africa. It included the ''South African Infantry'', comprising twelve battalions, and the ''Cape Corps'', comprising two battalions of Coloured volunteers. These units were disbanded in 1919. The Infantry Branch was enlarged in 1934, and the mounted rifles regiments were converted to infantry in 1935. In 1943, the Infantry Branch was incorporated into the new South African Armoured Corps, which was divided into armour and infantry branches after World War II. Republic Defence Force (SADF) Separated by language Based on the findings of a committee led by Brigadier H.B. Popper in late 1953, it was recommended that some Engli ...
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Phalaborwa
Phalaborwa (translated to English as ''better than the south; phala'' means ''better than and borwa'' means ''south'') is a town in the Mopani District Municipality, Limpopo province, South Africa. It is located near the confluence of the Ga-Selati River and the Olifants River (Limpopo), Olifants, halfway up along the western border of the Kruger National Park in the Lowveld. Name The name "Ba-Phalaborwa", given to the area by the Sotho people, Sotho tribes who moved here from the south, means "better than the south". The Sotho mined and smelted copper and iron ore here as far back as 400 AD. Masorini, near Phalaborwa gate, is a reconstructed Ba-Phalaborwa hill village, with huts, grain storage areas, and an iron smelting site. Surrounding townships There are two townships, Namakgale and Lulekani where the Pedi people, Pedi and Tsonga people, Tsonga reside, and rural areas such as Mashishimale, Humulani, Kurhula (Matshama Hi Nkano), Ben Farm (Majeje), Makushane and Ga-Maseke.Ga- ...
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Infantry Regiments Of South Africa
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine infantry. Although disused in modern times, heavy infantry also commonly made up the bulk of many historic armies. Infantry, cavalry, and artillery have traditionally made up the core of the combat arms professions of various armies, with the infantry almost always comprising the largest portion of these forces. Etymology and terminology In English, use of the term ''infantry'' began about the 1570s, describing soldiers who march and fight on foot. The word derives from Middle French ''infanterie'', from older Italian (also Spanish) ''infanteria'' (foot soldiers too inexperienced for cavalry), from Latin '' īnfāns'' (without speech, newborn, foolish), from which English also gets ''infant''. The individual-soldier term ''infantryma ...
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Infantry Battalions Of South Africa
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine infantry. Although disused in modern times, heavy infantry also commonly made up the bulk of many historic armies. Infantry, cavalry, and artillery have traditionally made up the core of the combat arms professions of various armies, with the infantry almost always comprising the largest portion of these forces. Etymology and terminology In English, use of the term ''infantry'' began about the 1570s, describing soldiers who march and fight on foot. The word derives from Middle French ''infanterie'', from older Italian (also Spanish) ''infanteria'' (foot soldiers too inexperienced for cavalry), from Latin '' īnfāns'' (without speech, newborn, foolish), from which English also gets ''infant''. The individual-soldier term ''infantryma ...
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SANDF Era Infantry Formation Insignia
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) comprises the armed forces of South Africa. The commander of the SANDF is appointed by the President of South Africa from one of the armed services. They are in turn accountable to the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans of the Defence Department. The military as it exists today was created in 1994, following South Africa's first nonracial election in April of that year and the adoption of a new constitution. It replaced the South African Defence Force and also integrated uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA) guerilla forces. History Integration process In 1994, the SANDF took over the personnel and equipment from the SADF and integrated forces from the former Bantustan homelands forces, as well as personnel from the former guerrilla forces of some of the political parties involved in South Africa, such as the African National Congress's Umkhonto we Sizwe, the Pan Africanist Congress's ...
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SADF Era 21 SA Battalion Insignia
The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Force was officially succeeded by the SADF, which was established by the Defence Act (No. 44) of 1957. The SADF, in turn, was superseded by the South African National Defence Force in 1994. Mission and structure The SADF was organised to perform a dual mission: to counter possible insurgency in all forms, and to maintain a conventional military arm which could defend the republic's borders, making retaliatory strikes as necessary. As the military expanded during the 1970s, the SADF general staff was organised into six sections—finance, intelligence, logistics, operations, personnel, and planning; uniquely, the South African Medical Service (SAMS) was made co-equal with the South African Army, the South African Navy and the South Afri ...
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South African Border War
The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angola from 26 August 1966 to 21 March 1990. It was fought between the South African Defence Force (SADF) and the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), an armed wing of the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO). The South African Border War resulted in some of the largest battles on the African continent since World War II and was closely intertwined with the Angolan Civil War. Following several years of unsuccessful petitioning through the United Nations and the International Court of Justice for Namibian independence from South Africa, SWAPO formed the PLAN in 1962 with material assistance from the Soviet Union, China, and sympathetic African states such as Tanzania, Ghana, and Algeria. Fighting broke out between PLAN and th ...
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Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Although Kazungula, it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres (660 feet) of the Botswanan right bank of the Zambezi, Zambezi River separates the two countries. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the Commonwealth of Nations. The driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia has been inhabited since pre-historic times by the San people, San, Damara people, Damara and Nama people. Around the 14th century, immigration, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. Since ...
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South-West Africa
South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1975), Botswana ( Bechuanaland before 1966), South Africa, and Zambia (Northern Rhodesia before 1964). Previously the German colony of South West Africa from 1884–1915, it was made a League of Nations mandate of the Union of South Africa following Germany's defeat in the First World War. Although the mandate was abolished by the United Nations in 1966, South African control over the territory continued despite its illegality under international law. The territory was administered directly by the South African government from 1915 to 1978, when the Turnhalle Constitutional Conference laid the groundwork for semi-autonomous rule. During an interim period between 1978 and 1985, South Africa gradually granted South West Africa a limited for ...
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East Caprivi
East Caprivi or Itenge was a bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland for the Masubiya people. It was set up in 1972, in the very corner of the Namibian panhandle called the Caprivi Strip. It was granted a self-governing status in 1976. The homeland was renamed Zambezi Region soon after. Unlike the other homelands in South West Africa, East Caprivi was administered through the Department of Bantu Administration and Development in Pretoria. East Caprivi, like other homelands in South West Africa, was abolished in May 1989 at the start of the transition to independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu .... See also * Leaders of East Caprivi * Caprivi Liberation Army References ...
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Ovamboland
Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland for the Ovambo people. The term originally referred to the parts of northern Namibia inhabited by the Ovambo ethnic group, namely the area controlled by the traditional Ovambo kingdoms in pre-colonial and early colonial times, such as Ondonga, Ongandjera, and Oukwanyama. Its endonym is ''Ovambo ~ Owambo''. Background In the 1960s South Africa, which was administering South West Africa under a League of Nations mandate, came under increased international pressure regarding its minority White rule over the majority of Blacks. The solution envisaged by South Africa—the Odendaal Plan—was to separate the white and the non-white population, grant self-government to the isolated black territories, and thus make Whites the majority population in the vast remainder of the country. Moreover it was envisaged t ...
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15 South African Infantry Battalion
15 South African Infantry Battalion is a motorised infantry unit of the South African Army. History Origin This battalion was established in 1994 from the ranks of the former Venda Defence Force.Grundy, K.W. Soldiers without politics, Blacks in the South African Armed Forces, Perspectives on Southern Africa, 33, University of California Press, Berkeley. AACR2 The unit badge reflects its location. Thohoyandou means "head of the elephant". Operational Command The unit resorted for operational purposes under the command of the Soutpansberg Military Area The Soutpansberg Military Area (SMA) Headquarters was situated in Messina in the Northern Province of South Africa. The size of the area for which the SMA was responsible for was approximately . History After the independence of Zimbabwe and it .... Insignia Previous Dress Insignia Current Dress Insignia SANDF's Motorised Infantry SANDF's Motorised Infantry is transported mostly by Samil trucks, Mamba APC's or other un- ...
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