Breaking Rank: Secrets, Silences and Stories of South

Africa’s Border War

Gary Baines

Abstract
For some fifteen yeas little attention has been paid to South Africa’s
Border War and the memories of soldiers who fought therein. Likewise,
combatants with the liberation movements have all but been forgotten or
otherwise marginalised in the new political dispensation. But the recent
controversy over the exclusion of the names of SADF soldiers from the
Freedom Park memorial wall and the involvement of ex-combatants in
violent crimes has received media coverage. The spate of publications and
the existence of internet sites that host personal accounts of the war also
suggest that there is significant public interest in these matters. And the
discovery of mass graves and the questions about the treatment of
detainees in SWAPO camps has kept the war in the public eye in Namibia.
This paper seeks to explain why the silences existed in the first place and
why soldiers are breaking rank and telling their stories now.

South Africa – Namibia – Angola -- Border War – silences – secrets –

stories – memorials – trauma – Truth and Reconciliation Commission

More than fifteen years have passed since: South Africa withdrew
its armed forces from Angola and agreed to a negotiated settlement
based on United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 435
for Namibia, the Cold War ended, and the liberation movements
suspended the armed struggle against the apartheid regime. This
chain of events brought an end to the late Cold War conflicts in
southern Africa that had caused extensive death and destruction and
ruptured the region’s stability. Yet scant attention has been paid to
the convergence of these events and how they contributed to the
political transition in South Africa. 1 Especially neglected has been
the bearing of events in the region on the country’s domestic
changes and vice versa. For instance, the Report of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission (TRC) devoted a single chapter of its
seven-volume report to events beyond South Africa’s borders. 2
Researchers were commissioned by the TRC and legal teams to
investigate these events, but scholars have not followed their lead in
any systematic way whatsoever. The records of the apartheid
regime have not readily yielded their secrets to scholars in part
2 Gary Baines
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because large volumes of top secret files were destroyed by the old
regime, but also because access to the military archives involves a
lengthy procedure of declassification. Yet, ironically, it is access to
American and Cuban records that has afforded a better
understanding of why and how South Africa’s white minority
regime waged war in the context of the changing dynamics of the
Cold War. 3 It is with good reason that Peter Vale has expressed
concern regarding the silences in the historiography of South
Africa’s role in the Cold War. 4 And it is with equally good reason
that Monica Popescu has bemoaned the “Cold War silences” in the
disciplines of literary criticism and cultural studies. 5

If scholars have paid scant attention to the Border War in

recent years, does this imply that the subject is taboo? Does
academic “silence” necessarily mean that the subject is out of
bounds to society at large? Is it like a shameful family secret that
South Africans have been loath to acknowledge, even privately?
Has South Africa’s quest for reconciliation meant society has
placed a premium on former adversaries forgiving and forgetting
the past? Has the peaceful political transition invalidated the
memory of the war waged by the apartheid regime as far as former
South African Defence Force (SADF) conscripts are concerned? In
my view ex-combatants from both sides have earnestly begun to
explore their place in post-apartheid South Africa by revisiting the
memories of their military experiences. They are breaking rank and
telling their stories. And this paper seeks to understand why this is
so.

The SADF learned the (mistaken) lesson of Vietnam from

the United States forces that unrestricted media coverage of war
could be demoralizing and self-defeating. 6 Accordingly, the Border
War was waged away from the public eye. Censorship and
disinformation served to create a conspiracy of silence. The
Nationalist Party government and the SADF did not take the media,
the soldiers or their families into their confidence. For instance,
there was a “black out” of coverage by local media of Operation
Savannah in 1975 when SADF forces briefly occupied parts of
central Angola. 7 That local media were kept in the dark whilst the
story was broken by their international counterparts occasioned
acute embarrassment for the former. If the government treated local
 Breaking Rank 3
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media with outright contempt, it often treated the general public
with sheer indifference. It repeatedly refused to disclose the truth
about the number and nature of South Africa’s (often self-inflicted)
casualties. 8 Stories released to and published by the media were
often contrived versions of what had actually caused the deaths of
servicemen. 9 This was compounded by the SADF’s reluctance to
disclose the circumstances of individual soldier’s deaths to their
next of kin. 10 Even the troops themselves were seldom informed
about strategic objectives of military operations in which they were
involved. For instance, troops were not briefed beforehand that they
were bound for Angola, and officers were instructed not to divulge
the enemy’s logistical and numerical superiority to their own troops
at the battle of Cuito Cuanavale. 11 Not only clandestine operations
carried out by the SADF’s elite reconnaissance forces deserve the
appellation the “Silent War”. 12 For the undeclared war was
generally conducted amidst considerable secrecy and an oppressive
silence.

Secrets can reveal much about society and governance as

“they are more about a kind of information than a kind of
concealment.” 13 The apartheid state disclosed information about
military matters only on a need to know basis. SADF national
servicemen were sworn to secrecy by having to sign declarations in
terms of the Defence Act not to divulge information pertaining to
military operations. 14 This bound veterans of the Border War to
refrain from telling the stories even to friends and family (although
they undoubtedly swapped stories with one another and shared their
memories of their experiences). Officially-imposed amnesia led
some ex-soldiers to find alternative forms of remembering such as
writing fiction. A few veterans with literary pretensions told their
stories in thinly-guised fictionalized autobiographical works,
especially in short stories, through the medium of Afrikaans. Some
of this grensliteratuur achieved canonical status and won the
recognition of an educated elite, 15 but was not widely read. Nor was
the political poetry of the Staffrider variety. But illustrated coffee
table books such as Peter Badcock’s Images of War (1981) that
comprised a collection of poems and sketches that paid tribute to
the “ordinary” soldier, 16 did find an audience. And the novels by Al
Venter and Peter Essex that related far-fetched stories of machismo
heroes and their beautiful, dutiful women taming the hostile
4 Gary Baines
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African continent achieved blockbuster status. 17 Equally popular
were stories that appeared in magazines like Huisgenoot and Scope,
photocomix like Grensvegter, 18 and films such as Kaptein Caprivi
and Boetie Gaan Border Toe, 19 that celebrated the actions of
adventurous and fun-loving heroes whose military training made
them more than a match for their adversaries. However, such
glamourisation of the troopie’s life was a far cry from reality when
NCOs took perverse pleasure in rondfok (literally fucking the
troops around) during drills and training exercises, and when
boredom verging on stupor was induced by repetitive routines and a
“hurry up and wait” mentality. Border duty might have offered the
inducement of “danger pay” but the sense of adventure of SADF
troops evaporated as soon as operations resulted in a mounting
death toll. For its part, the South African public was starved of real-
life military heroes. The stories that made headline news were those
such as Sapper van der Mescht and Major du Toit who were
captured during (separate) raids deep into Angola and paraded
before the international media by their captors. 20 When these agents
of the SADF’s risky military adventurism were able to tell their
own stories, they came across as hapless victims. Thus, the SADF’s
claim that troops were never forsaken behind enemy lines rang
hollow. Such operations were clearly not pre-emptive raids on
“terrorist” bases but attempts to sabotage the infrastructure and
installations of a sovereign state. Such “dirty tricks” were part of a
systematic campaign to destabilize neighbouring states that were
said to harbour the country’s enemies (i.e. MK/APLA cadres). In-
house publications like the magazine Paratus could do little to
repair the damage to the reputation of the SADF caused by adverse
publicity. In order to affect damage control, carefully vetted
(photo)journalists and military correspondents were allowed to
accompany units in the field. These public relations exercises might
have convinced the public at home of the SADF’s good intentions,
but the real battle for hearts and minds was for the loyalty of the
conscripts in the SADF which was, after all, largely a citizen force.

Apart from token Pro Patria medals and commemorative t-

shirts, no official or public recognition was given to the sacrifices
of South African soldiers before a memorial was unveiled in 1979
at Fort Klapperkop. Built to honour of all those who had lost their
lives in defence of the Republic of South Africa, 21 it has instead
 Breaking Rank 5
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become a monument to defeat. It is viewed as neither a site of
remembrance, nor a place of mourning for friends and families of
the deceased. Indeed, the Fort Klapperkop memorial is hardly
known to ex-servicemen’s organization, let alone the general
public. Thus a forum for veterans of the Border War has sought to
have the names of those killed fighting for their country included in
the roll of honour compiled for the Sikhumbuto memorial wall in
Freedom Park which was erected as an act of symbolic reparation
for those who died in the struggle for liberation from white
minority rule. The veterans also objected to the fact that the
memorial wall is to include the names of Cuban soldiers who died
in Angola fighting the SADF. At the time of writing, their request
for “fair treatment” had been rejected by Wally Serote, the CEO of
the Freedom Park Trust, on the grounds that the SADF soldiers
were fighting to preserve apartheid and not freedom and
humanity. 22 This snub was regarded by former conscripts as further
testimony that their neglect by the Nationalist government would
continue under the African National Congress (ANC) government.
They would remain marginalized in the “new” South Africa.

Their sense of betrayal was exacerbated by the outcome of

the war and negotiated settlement that, undoubtedly, devalued the
experiences of SADF national servicemen. The silence imposed by
the state was compounded by the veterans’ own wish to forget.
Official invisibility intensified individual amnesia. Under such
circumstances, veterans tended to repress their traumatic memories
so as not to admit recollections too painful to recall. The
marginalization of ex-combatants can be seen not only in
difficulties faced by veterans of notorious SADF units such as 32
Battalion, 23 but also in society’s failure to acknowledge the
hardships that “regular” soldiers who were not necessarily involved
in heinous acts faced in coming to terms with their experiences.
There are those who believe that the Border War is best forgotten
as the country focuses on building a new future. But the
experiences and trauma of conscripts/cadres, and the latent
memories of an often brutal conflict cannot simply be wished away.
Soldiers’ stories need to be told and the demons of both individuals
and the nation exorcised.
6 Gary Baines
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SADF veterans of the Border War are unlikely to heal or
attain closure until such time as they receive therapy. They were
seldom given any opportunity to come to terms with their
frequently traumatic and life-transforming experiences. One
account relates how soldiers involved in some of the fiercest
fighting in Angola in 1988 were rounded up before the uitklaar
(demobilization) parade and given a pep talk by their commanding
officer, offered a perfunctory prayer by the military chaplain, and a
superficial collective counseling session by a clinical
psychologist. 24 There was no debriefing whatsoever and the
soldiers were sent home to resume their lives in civvie street. If the
old order was not inclined to recognize the pain of its foot soldiers,
then at least the TRC acknowledged in its report the need to “raise
public awareness about the reality and effects of post-traumatic
stress disorder” (PTSD) and to encourage former conscripts and
soldiers who participated in the conflict “to share their pain and
reflect on their experiences.” 25 Unfortunately, not many conscripts
availed themselves of the opportunity afforded by the TRC hearings
to tell their stories. Some reported that the lack of public knowledge
about the war created suspicion of their stories, while others were
summarily dismissed as sympathy seekers or outright liars. 26 Not
surprisingly, some veterans embraced silence and solitude. Even if
the TRC “left the experiences of “ordinary” soldiers largely
invisible - not merely forgotten but ‘wished away’” as a report of
the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR)
avers 27 – it cannot be blamed for perpetuating the silence.

The TRC hearings were envisaged as a first step towards

national reconciliation in South Africa so as to heal the wounds
caused by the legacy of apartheid. Former SADF soldiers, however,
seemed to fear that the TRC would become a witch hunt that would
blame them for perpetrating crimes against humanity and ignoring
the rules of engagement in South Africa’s conflicts. Karen Whitty
explains why former SADF conscripts have been reluctant to tell
their stories:
Bound by a sense of honour to their fellow troops,
and the patriarchy still espoused by white South
Africa, few men have come forward and spoken
about their experiences, however barbaric and
mundane, in South Africa's border wars. 28
 Breaking Rank 7
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Aside from proposing projects aimed at rehabilitating and
rebuilding the lives of ex-combatants, the TRC envisaged that they
could possibly be “help[ed] to tell and write their stories.” 29 And it
would appear that the passage of time for reflection has given
prospective soldier-authors the space to make sense of their
experiences and construct narratives thereof. A number of soldier-
authors have undoubtedly sought to achieve healing and
reintegration into society through their writings. For some the act of
writing has become a form of catharsis, of dealing with one’s
traumas and exorcising the demons of the past. Clive Holt's book At
Thy Call We Did Not Falter was written in this vein and Whitty
reckons that it marks the beginning of this healing process for these
former soldiers. In fact, Holt’s memoir is one of a number of such
confessional texts that have been published in recent years. 30

Some ex-SADF soldiers have resorted to the apparent

political neutrality of cyberspace to tell their stories in order to
contest their invisibility in post-apartheid South Africa. The
camaraderie of cyberspace has largely replaced bonding/drinking
sessions in pubs and reunions of veterans’ associations. In fact, the
reach and scope of the informal networks (often via email listservs
or websites hosted overseas) serve as a kind of virtual veteran’s
association. This community of war veterans who have served in
the old SADF, belonged to a specific unit, or performed border,
duty has established a network of sites to exchange memories and,
in some cases, provide platforms for advice on matters like
PTSD. 31 Most sites have disclaimers to the effect that they have no
political affiliations and claim to be apolitical – although a few
advertise their (invariably right-wing) political orientations and
reminisce nostalgically about their time in the army. Such sites
provide the (cyber)space for soldiers to tell their stories thereby
contesting what Sasha Gear calls the “silence of stigmatized
knowledge” carried by ex-combatants. 32

It is fashionable to speak of “virtual” or “cyber-

communities” created by the Internet. Certainly, Web site links,
multiple postings, and cross-citation reinforce the idea that Web
authors and their readers share membership in a Net-mediated
community. But what significance should be attached to the use of
such metaphors as “virtual community”? Jodi Dean argues that
8 Gary Baines
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there is no longer a “consensus reality” according to which
contested questions of fact can be resolved. She suggests that,
instead, there are multiple contending realities which keep
contested issues from being decided. Furthermore, the ease with
which individuals who hold similar views can communicate with
one another allows them to form at least “virtual communities” and
provide the requisite social support for one another. 33 In other
words, Dean reckons that there has been dissolution of the
boundary between the margins and the mainstream. This implies
that groups marginalized in the realm of realpolitik are able to
challenge the consensus established by hegemonic groups.
However, Michael Barkun believes that while the boundary has
become more permeable it still exists and that virtual communities
remain on the fringes of the power brokering of interest groups and
political elites. 34 Certainly, former SADF national servicemen have
resorted to the internet in order to share their memories and make
their voices heard; something which they clearly feel is not possible
in post-apartheid South Africa.

Another group that regards itself as marginalized under the

new political dispensation comprises retired generals of the SADF.
They are convinced that the TRC was biased against the SADF and
predisposed to finding it guilty of misconduct. These generals had
sought to exculpate themselves of any wrongdoing even before the
TRC held its hearings. Shortly after the ANC and Pan Africanist
Congress (PAC) were unbanned and the writing was on the wall for
the old order, Jannie Geldenhuys, the chief of the army and then the
SADF between 1985 and 1990, published A General’s Story. 35 This
is no mea culpa. Indeed, it showed a complete lack of atonement
and remorse. Geldenhuys insisted on his own professional integrity
and defended the neutrality of the SADF, and maintained that its
function had not been to support a particular political party but
rather to ensure the security of all the citizens of the state. Magnus
Malan’s more recently published memoir, too, is an evasive and
self-serving justification of his role in the SADF and of the military
in upholding apartheid. 36 But the generals showed their true
political stripes (stars?) when they refused to testify before the TRC
and feigned ignorance of war crimes sanctioned by the government.
They evinced a singular lack of willingness to take responsibility
for their acts of commission and omission. 37 When the generals
 Breaking Rank 9
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closed ranks so as to look after themselves they ignored the
interests of the foot soldiers. They exacerbated the marginalization
of ex-SADF combatants and compounded their inability to
integrate into post-apartheid society and the South African National
Defence Force (SANDF). 38

The TRC deplored the intransigence of the SADF hierarchy

and its reticence to supply documents or acknowledge its
responsibility for flaunting the international community’s rules for
the conduct of war. It opined that this attitude hindered the healing
of the nation’s traumas. Perhaps in part because of the ongoing
secrecy surrounding the war, and because the Border War remains
for most of the public “far away” (according to an ex-Koevoet
member who testified before the TRC), the hearings on the
atrocities committed in Angola and Namibia do not seem to have
attracted as much attention as similar acts committed at home.
Unlike the TRC’s treatment of South Africa’s domestic matters
there were no victim hearings whatsoever for human rights
violations outside of the country. The Report stated that “South
Africa’s occupation of South West Africa would merit a separate
truth commission of its own.” 39 The same might be said of the
SADF’s actions in Angola. However, the Report amounted to little
more than a survey of South Africa’s acts of aggression against
neighbouring states based largely on the perpetrator’s own
incomplete records. 40 The TRC had neither the co-operation of
these governments nor the resources to conduct an in-depth
investigation into human rights abuses and war crimes committed
in these territories. But SADF conscripts were still wary and
suspicious of the TRC despite its assurance that the testimonies
given during its hearings were “neither an attempt to look for
perpetrators, nor a process that will lead to the awarding of victim
status.” 41 If trauma involves a betrayal of trust and the abuse of
relations of power, 42 for the conscript it entailed the likelihood of
being held accountable for deeds committed in the name of the state
at the behest of politicians and generals. There is good reason to
speculate that the unwillingness to prosecute the SADF hierarchy
was a quid pro quo for its undertaking to prevent the right wing
from wrecking the negotiated settlement between the Nationalist
Party government and the ANC. But ex-soldiers felt betrayed when
10 Gary Baines
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the very powers that they were convinced would protect them and
provide security left them in the lurch.

Certain ex-combatants in the ranks of the liberation

movements feel equally betrayed by the post-colonial state. Groups
comprising ex-combatants or veterans of the liberation movements
also attest to being sidelined during the scramble for power and
patronage in the new dispensation. Aside from the teething
problems of integrating MK and APLA cadres into the new
SANDF, the tensions between returned exiles and “stay-at-homes”
remain potentially divisive. And according to Thula Bopela and
Daluxolo Luthuli in their co-authored Umkhonto we Sizwe, 43 ethnic
divisions were rampant in the ranks of MK and are still exploited in
post-apartheid South Africa. These manifestations of anomie and
high levels of alienation amongst male ex-combatants have been
confirmed by studies produced by the CSVR. Indeed, a main
finding of one such report was that: “Former combatants nowadays
tend to receive public attention only in relation to real or imaginary
security threats,” 44 a point confirmed by the attention paid to the
violence that accompanied the recent security employees strike. 45
When ex-combatants make the headlines as ruthless criminals or
family killers then the public sits up and takes notice. Otherwise
they are forgotten and silenced.

Whereas in South Africa the leadership of both the

SADF/apartheid state and MK/ANC failed to make full disclosure
before the TRC, in Namibia a fact-finding commission to uncover
the country’s violent past was rejected by SWAPO as contrary to
the spirit of reconciliation. One consequence of this, as Justine
Hunter has shown, 46 has been the refusal of SWAPO to own up to
the abuses and atrocities committed in its name, especially the
mistreatment, torture and even execution of detainees in military
camps established in neighbouring states during the war. Hunter
rightly observes that unless this “wall of silence” is addressed in a
transparent fashion, it will continue to bedevil the political process
in post-war Namibia. Hunter also alludes to the recent discovery of
unmarked mass graves of SWAPO cadres who were killed in the
last months of the war. The public outcry caused by this incident
was compounded by the disavowals of former SADF generals to
knowledge of or responsibility for the massacres on their watch. In
 Breaking Rank 11
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fact, it was a matter of public record for revelations about the
incident had previously been made in at least one publication about
the final days of the war. 47 The media coverage reflected the
ongoing public interest in the “unfinished business” of the Border
War.

The SWAPO detainees and mass graves issues in Namibia

suggests considerable sensitivity in respect of matters relating to
ex-combatants in that country. 48 In South Africa the Freedom Park
memorial wall controversy has been the subject of media attention
and even occasioned the mobilisation of civil society groups.
Moreover, a collection of SADF conscripts’ reminiscences
published under the inappropriate title An Unpopular War has
racked up renewed interest and sales. 49 The popularity of this
collection might simply suggest nostalgia for the old order or
might equally hint at a deep-seated desire to come to terms with
the past. Whatever the case, there can be no doubting the public
interest in these matters. And public discourse has placed the
subject squarely back on the academic agenda in a way that is
commensurate with this interest in the “unfinished business” of the
war. To this end, I have sought to break silences and even tackle
some taboos about the Border War.

Notes
1
Even a major project such as the multi-volumed South African
Democracy Education Trust (SADET) entitled The Road to Democracy in
South Africa focuses primarily on the national liberation struggle rather
than the regional and global dimensions of the conflict. Exceptions to this
tendency include Chris Alden, Apartheid’s Last Stand: The Rise and Fall
of the South African Security State, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996 and
Adrian Guelke, Rethinking the Rise and Fall of Apartheid, Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
2
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report, Vol. 2,
Cape Town: TRC, 1998, ch.2 ‘The State outside South Africa between
1960 and 1990’.
3
Pioneered by Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions: Havana,
Washington, Pretoria, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
2002 and Alberton: Galago, 2003. See also his more recent article
12 Gary Baines
____________________________________________

‘Moscow’s Proxy? Cuba and Africa 1975-1988’, Journal of Cold War

Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, Spring 2006, pp. 3-51.
4
Peter Vale, ‘Pivot, Puppet or Periphery: The Cold War and South
Africa’, Paper delivered at the International Studies Association
Conference, Portland, Oregon, Feb-March, 2003.
5
See Monica Popescu, in Beyond the Border War: New Perspectives on
South Africa’s late Cold war Conflicts, Gary Baines & Peter Vale (eds.),
Pretoria: UNISA Press, forthcoming.
6
G.N. Addison, ‘Censorship of the Press in South Africa during the
Angolan War: A Case Study of News Manipulation and Suppression’, MA
Thesis, Rhodes University, 1980. The myth perpetuated by the US
military was that media, especially television, coverage of the Vietnam
War caused the tide of public opinion to turn against the intervention and
that this, in turn, caused the politicians to scale down and eventually
withdraw American forces thus effectively admitting defeat. For a critique
of this perception, see Daniel Hallin, The Uncensored War: the Media and
Vietnam, Berkeley, Ca.: University of California Press, 1986.
7
Robin Hallett, ‘The South African Intervention in Angola 1975-76’,
African Affairs, vol. 77, July 1978, pp. 347-68. Arthur Gavshon, Crisis in
Africa: Battleground of East and West, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981,
pp. 223-57.
8
With good reason, the SADF has been called “the world’s most accident-
prone army” by Tony Eprile, The Persistence of Memory, Cape Town:
Double Storey Books, 2004, p. 171.
9
J. H. Thompson, An Unpopular War: Voices of South African National
Servicemen, Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2006, p. 149.
10
Willem Steenkamp, South Africa’s Border War 1966-1989, Gibraltar:
Ashanti, 1989, p. 29.
11
Clive Holt, At Thy Call We Did Not Falter, Cape Town: Zebra Press,
2005, pp. 122, 137; Mark Behr, The Smell of Apples, London: Abacus,
1998, p. 82.
12
Peter Stiff, The Silent War: South African Recce Operations 1969-1994,
Alberton: Galago, 1999.
13
Gary Minkley and Martin Legassick, ‘”Not Telling”: Secrets, Lies and
History’, History and Theory, vol. 39, no. 4, December 2000, p. 8.
14
Section 118(4) of the Defence Act of 1967 rendered it an offence for a
person to disclose any secret or confidential information relating to the
defence of the country which came to his/her knowledge by reason of his
membership of the SADF or employment in the public service. See Kathy
Satchwell, ‘The power to defend: an analysis of various aspects of the
Defence Act’ in War in Society: The Militarisation of South Africa,
Jacklyn Cock & Laurie Nathan (eds), Cape Town: David Philip, 1984, p.
48.
 Breaking Rank 13
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15
Hendrik van Coller, ‘Border/Frontier Literature’ in Space and
boundaries in literature: Proceedings of the 12th Congress of the
International Comparative Literature Association, Roger Bauer, Douwes
Fokkema & Michael de Graat (eds), Munich: Ludicium, 1990, pp. 254-9.
16
Peter Badcock, Images of War, Durban: Graham Publishing, 1981.
17
This includes titles such as Al J. Venter’s Soldier of Fortune, London:
W.H Allen, 1980 and Peter Essex’s The Exile, London: Collins, 1984. See
David Maugham-Brown, ‘Images of War: Popular Fiction in English and
the War on South Africa’s Border’, The English Academy Review, vol. 4,
1987, pp. 53-66.
18
Photocomix like the Grensvegter series which featured intrepid heroes
in uniform single-handedly winning the war, not unlike a Rambo-type
figure, were widely known by the colloquial Afrikaans name poesboeke.
This literally means ‘cunt books’ and is an oblique reference to the fact
that the picture frames were filled with an array of pin-up women, most of
whom were bikini-clad and occasionally topless but never naked.
Poesboeke were essentially a poor substitute for pornography in apartheid
South Africa. See http://www.allatsea.co.za/army/pboek.htm
19
See Keyan Tomaselli and Kevin Carlean, Boetie Gaan Border Toe, at
http://www.und.ac.za/und/ccms/publications/articles/boetie.htm; Dylan
Craig, ‘The Viewer as Conscript: Dynamic Struggles for Ideological
Supremacy in South African Border War Film, 1971-1988’, MA
dissertation, University of Cape Town, 2003 and ‘Screening the Border
War, 1971-88’, Kleio, vol. 36, 2004, pp. 28-46.
20
Allan Soule, Gary Dixon & René Richards, The Wynand du Toit Story,
Johannesburg: Hans Strydom Publishers, 1987.
21
Paratus Special Supplement, July 1979 vol. 30. no. 7.
22
Pretoria News, 17 January 2007 (‘Include us, says ex-SADF
members’).
23
In the particular case of 32 Battalion, these difficulties include
deprivation, an uncertain future as a refugee community shuttled from
camp to camp within some of the most desolate areas of the country,
unsympathetic treatment by the ANC government, and easy prey to
mercenary recruiters. A brief summary of their conditions can be found at
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=198866&area=/insight/ins
ight__national/
24
Barry Fowler, Grensnvegter? South African army psychologist, Halifax:
Sentinel Projects, 1996, pp. 123-7 outlines the SADF’s ‘model’ debriefing
session. Holt, At Thy Call, pp. 116-20 reproduces it and at p. 122 relates
how it worked in practice.
25
TRC Report, vol. 4, p. 221.
26
For instance the testimony of conscript Kevin Hall has been carefully
scrutinised and rebutted by Hilton Hamann, Days of the Generals, Cape
14 Gary Baines
____________________________________________

Town: Zebra Press, 2001, pp. 221-3 and Magnus Malan, My lewe saam
met die SA Weermag, Pretoria: Protea Boekhuis, 2006, pp. 474-6.
27
Sasha Gear, Wishing Us Away: Challenges facing ex-combatants in the
‘new’ South Africa, Johannesburg: CSVR, 2002, viewed on 14 June 2006,
http://www.wits.ac.za/csvr/papers/papvtp8e.htm.
28
Karen Whitty, Review of Clive Holt, At Thy Call We Did Not Falter,
Viewed on 22 August 2005,
http://www.iafrica.com/pls/procs/SEARCH.ARCHIVE?p_content_id=474
801&p_site_id=2.
29
TRC Report, vol. 4, p. 242.
30
Others include the short stories collected in Barry Fowler, ed, Pro
Patria. Halifax: Sentinel Projects, 1995; Anthony Feinstein, In Conflict,
Windhoek: New Namibia Books, 1998; and Rick Andrew, Buried in the
Sky, Johannesburg: Penguin, 2001.
31
See, for instance, Army Talk at
http://moo.sun.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/armytalk/
which hosted a chatline utilised mainly by ex- Citizen Force SADF
members (i.e. conscripts). But it is likely that such sites are also accessed
by military buffs, as well as veterans of South Africa’s and other recent
wars. These sites are obviously male domains. Recently, this site seems to
have been shut down or relocated, and its mailing list discontinued.
32
Sasha Gear, ‘The road back: Psycho-social strains of transition for
South Africa’s ex-combatants’ in Baines & Vale, Beyond the Border War.
33
Jodi Dean, Aliens in America: Conspiracy Cultures from Outerspace to
Cyberspace, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998, pp. 8-9.
34
Michael Barkun, A culture of conspiracy: apocalyptic visions in
contemporary America, Berkeley, Ca.: University of California Press,
2003, pp. 185-6.
35
Jannie Geldenhuys, A General’s Story: From an Era of War and Peace
Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 1995. Originally published in Afrikaans as
Dié wat wen: 'n generaal se storie uit 'n era van oorlog en vrede, 1993.
36
Magnus Malan, My lewe saam met die SA Weermag, Pretoria: Protea
Bookhuis, 2006.
37
A clique of former SADF generals did make a submission to the TRC. It
was co-ordinated by General Dirk Marais, former Deputy Chief of the
Army, under the title: ‘The Military in a Political Arena: the SADF and
the TRC’. See Hamann, Days of the Generals, p. 130.
38
Gear, Wishing Us Away, pp. 123-5
39
TRC Report, vol. 2, p. 62.
40
Christopher Saunders, ‘South Africa’s Role in Namibia/Angola: The
Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Account’ in Baines & Vale,
Beyond the Border War.
41
TRC Report, vol. 4, pp. 221.
 Breaking Rank 15
____________________________________________________

42
Jenny Edkins, Trauma and the Memory of Politics, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 4.
43
Thula Bopela and Daluxolo Luthuli, Umkhonto we Sizwe: Fighting for a
divided people, Alberton: Galago, 2005.
44
Gear, Wishing Us Away.
45
Many ex-combatants have left the armed forces and have found
employment in the burgeoning privatized security industry, others have
resorted to providing such services as far afield as Iraq or have been
engaged as mercenaries. See Gear Wishing Us Away.
46
Justine Hunter, ‘No Man’s Land of Time: Reflections on the Politics of
Memory and Forgetting’ in Baines & Vale, Beyond the Border War.
47
Peter Stiff, Nine Days of War: South Africa’s Final Days in Namibia,
Alberton: Lemur Books, 1991.
48
Lalli Metsola and Henning Melber, ‘Namibia’s Pariah Heroes: SWAPO
Ex-Combatants between Liberation Gospel and Security Interests’ in The
Security-Development Nexus: Expressions of Sovereignty and
Securitization in Southern Africa, Lars Buur, et al (eds), Uppsala:
Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2006 and Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2007, pp.
85-105.
49
The Border War was not unpopular amongst the majority of the white
populace nor conscripts while it was being waged. The moral ambiguity
conferred on the war has happened retrospectively with these groups.
Even those who once supported the war do not now think it was worth
fighting. Coincidentally, Thompson’s An Unpopular War is now in its
sixth reprint in almost as many months.

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Gary Baines is an Associate Professor at Rhodes University,

Grahamstown, South Africa. His research and teaching interests include
the representation of war, memory and trauma.