The South African government started a programme in April 2014 to record the history of all military veterans from South Africa.
The Departments of Military Veterans and Communication launched the South African Military Digitisation Programme in 2014 to record, profile and digitise the history and experiences of the military veterans from both the statutory and non-statutory armed forces. Minister of Communications Yunus Carrim at the time said: “There is a sense in which by military veterans telling your stories, it can also help in your psychological healing,” and added, “Basically, by digitisation, we mean providing in electronic form any content that can be accessed by cell-phones, tablets and personal computers through internet and other means or can be seen on television screens.”
“…a final characteristic of mature warriors – for most often it is they, knowing first-hand the cost of divisiveness, who throughout history have had a vision of oneness and shown us the path to it. To heal our veterans…we must restore humanity to those against whom we have warred. We must enter into a new identity that transcends nationalism and share war’s aftereffects. As mature warriors have always done, we must develop wisdom that our rightful tribe is the entire human race and that we owe allegiance to all life, gaining witness from and bearing sympathy for each side.”
– Edward Tick on page 263 of War and the Soul
An interactive website with the personal stories of these military veterans.
The intention of the government at the time was to create an interactive website with the personal stories of these military veterans where some of the content generated is uploaded for the public to view. This official website unfortunately never materialized, and that is why The Stories of the SADF Military Veterans Foundation NPC, Registration number 2019/466755/08 was founded, to at least make a start with the recordal of the oral history of the military veterans from the statutory forces.
From the time when the Defence Act, 1957 (No 44 of 1957) was passed by Parliament up to 1994, at least 600 000 white South African men were conscripted into military service, initially through a ballot system but from 1 January 1968 through a national service system. All medically fit male white citizens South Africa eligible for military service had to report for service in the year in which they turned 18. It is often overlooked that compulsory military service was not confined to the initial year and then, from 1977 two years of service. The subsequent Citizen Force obligation of 10 camps had a huge impact on families and careers. Then too there were all the black, brown and Indian soldiers who volunteered for military service, or those from all races, who joined the South African Defence Force as career soldiers.
The stories of the veterans from both the statutory and non-statutory forces, representing the different viewpoints of the separate roads that steered them to the democratic dispensation in our country as mutual citizens, deserve to be recorded. And it must be done soon because as they grow older their numbers grow less and their stories are lost forever.