INTRODUCTION

Special Forces. These two words instil respect, admiration, esteem, reverence and mystique among the general population but create fear, anxiety and distress in the hearts of insurgents, warlords, criminal syndicates, drug lords and any wrongdoers who find themselves in the crosshairs of Special Forces teams. Unfortunately, these two words are also sometimes hijacked by wannabes who dream up fantasies in order to boost their own low self-esteem. We call it 'stolen valour'.

The South African Special Forces was established in the early 1970s and in a short space of time became operationally active. To this day it is a prestigious and vital unit of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). The first Special Forces unit, 1 Reconnaissance Commando, was established in 1972 at the highly respected South African Infantry (SAI) School in Oudtshoorn. 1 Reconnaissance Commando then moved to the coastal city of Durban in 1974. Two more operational Special Forces units and the Special Forces Headquarters (known as Speskop) were spawned in the late 1970s.

Selection and training doctrines were initially based on those of the British Special Air Service (SAS), with some influence from the French Special Forces, particularly on the combat diving and seaborne operations side. Air capabilities were drawn from the highly esteemed 1 Parachute Battalion, based in my hometown of Bloemfontein in the central highlands of South Africa.

It wasn't long before Special Forces operators were being referred to as 'Recces' - an abbreviation of Reconnaissance Commando. From the outset these Recce operators were involved in hair-raising and difficult operations in Angola, Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe), Mozambique and other sub-equatorial African countries. After Angola and Mozambique received their independence from Portugal in 1975, communist governments were installed in both countries. The National Party government in South Africa perceived these black majority-ruled states as a threat to white minority rule but also as part of the so-called Red Peril - the threat posed by communism at the height of the Cold War. The United States (US), through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), encouraged South Africa to take a stand against communism in southern Africa.

South Africa also faced an insurgency in the then South West Africa (today Namibia) by the South West Africa People's Organisation (Swapo). At the time, South West Africa was governed by South Africa as a protectorate. The National Party government also had to deal with the threat from Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), and from the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress. From the viewpoint of the apartheid regime, these groups were insurgents or terrorists, but as I point out in my book Blood Money, one person's insurgent is another's freedom fighter or liberator. These armed groups were fighting the apartheid system for the independence of South West Africa, on the one hand, and for a democratic South Africa, on the other.

The first South African Defence Force (SADF) soldier killed in action in Angola, in March 1974, was Lieutenant Fred Zeelie. It is probably significant that he was a Recce operator from 1 Reconnaissance Commando. The Recces were very busy from 1975 onwards after Angola and Mozambique gained their independence and received backing from the Soviet Union and its satellites, while the white-minority regime in Rhodesia faced an onslaught from liberation movements. From the mid-1970s until 1980, when Rhodesia became independent, the Recces often worked with the elite Rhodesian SAS on operations in Rhodesia, Zambia and Mozambique, where the insurgents/freedom fighters had training camps and from where they launched attacks against the Rhodesian security forces. By then the Special Forces of both South Africa and Rhodesia were experienced and hardened bush fighters with a wide variety of skills and specialised tactics derived from operations against numerically larger enemy forces.

In 1980, the old security forces of Rhodesia were discontinued and a number of SAS, Selous Scouts and Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) operators joined the South African Reconnaissance Commandos. The amalgamation of the Recces with these Rhodesian special operations formations created one of the finest Special Forces organisations the world has ever seen.

By the late 1970s there were three South African Special Forces units: 1 Reconnaissance Regiment (Durban), 4 Reconnaissance Regiment (Langebaan) and 5 Reconnaissance Regiment (Phalaborwa). The Special Forces HQ was located in Pretoria. Although all of the operators were schooled in bush warfare, parachute deployments, demolitions, basic seaborne operations and urban warfare, each unit specialised in certain kinds of deployment: 1 Recce became experts in urban warfare, 4 Recce in seaborne operations, attack diving and underwater demolitions, and 5 Recce were masters of larger-scale bush warfare operations, often expedited through fast strikes delivered by light armoured vehicles.

Military or police conscription for all white males between the ages of 17 and 65 became compulsory from 1976. Initially, this duty had been performed over a nine-month period. In 1972, the conscription period was increased to one year, and from 1977 to 1993 all white South African males had to do two years of military service. In the early 1990s this was reduced to one year after Namibia became independent and the ANC and other liberation groups were unbanned. Conscription was abolished in August 1993.

Roughly 600 000 young white men were conscripted. Military service might have been mandatory, but it turned out to be the thing that would define my life and who I became as a person.

I was born in 1968, in the city of Bloemfontein, in the Free State province. I come from a modest middle-class family: my father was a teacher and my mother was an administrative secretary at the local municipality. Both my parents grew up on farms in the Free State, and our family comes from a community of farmers, or Boers in the Afrikaans language.

From an early age I was interested in military matters. I had a particular interest first in toy guns, then in real firearms. Fortunately, one of my uncles allowed me to stay on his farm in the mountainous eastern Free State during school holidays. He taught me how to shoot a rifle and how to hunt small animals such as rabbit, dassie (rock rabbit), meerkat and various birds. I quickly progressed from a .22 long rifle to a shotgun, and later to larger calibres, which we used to hunt various species of buck (antelope). Like many Afrikaner boys from farming communities, I excelled at shooting.

My first drawing depicting life in the military, 1974.

Wearing my uncle's army boots and beret.

Ready for cadet camp during high school.

I also enjoyed fishing, which my father and uncle taught me, and I learned to ride a horse. I really loved being outdoors in the veld. At the time I did not realise it, but these skills were in my DNA, as they were for the Boers who trekked from the Cape into the hinterland during the 19th century. The Boers' military prowess and skill at survival in the veld would later become famed through the actions of the Boer commandos in various wars against local tribes and two wars against the British Empire.

One of the subjects my dad taught at high school was history, and he was particularly interested in the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) and its battle sites around the country. I enjoyed all things military, and I loved to hear more about my upcoming military service, as well as news from the border (between South West Africa and Angola), where the SADF was engaged in battles against Swapo guerrillas and the People's Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola (Fapla), the armed forces of Angola's communist government.

During this time I heard tales, and sometimes rumours, about the secretive Recces and what an outstanding group of combat soldiers they were. In my early teens I developed an interest in becoming a Recce and took part in the cadet camps that young men of the era were encouraged to experience during the winter holiday break.

When I turned 16 I had to complete my 'call-up' papers for my compulsory military service. There was a standard set of administrative questions covering personal and family details, and a short informative summary about the Special Forces. You could indicate there if you were interested in attempting the selection/s and training cycle required to become a Recce. By this time in my life, I was sure that I wanted to become a soldier and had it in my mind that I really wanted to be a Special Forces operator. I indicated as much on the form and the papers were sent off. Around six months later, my mother received my call-up instructions in the post.

My conscription call-up papers.

The information booklet that came with my call-up papers.

With the instructions was a letter from an army general applauding my enthusiasm to join the Special Forces but also informing me that applying was not as simple as writing a letter. He did, however, indicate that he could arrange for me to be called up to the Infantry School at Oudtshoorn, where the Recces had kicked off 14 years earlier.

I was not particularly interested in school. Rugby, cricket, parties, girls and a regular bar fight were the...