Uys - Bushmen soldiers: the history of 31, 201 and 203 Battalions in the border war 1974-90

Arthur Walker HC Gand Bar with the author in 1991

Ian Uys inherited his love of military history from his father, Jack (191059). During his schooldays in Uitenhage he wrote to an encyclopedia for the names of all South African VC winners. He was sent three names, yet at the time he knew of 25!

He volunteered for and served in the SA Air Force Gymnasium in 1960, then attended the University of Cape Town and graduated B Commerce. Uys captained the UCT Boxing team and was selected as South Africas first AIESEC commerce student to work in the USA and Australia. After marrying Barbara Bowers, a former Londoner, he qualified as a chartered accountant then lived in England where he did further VC research.

In 1973 he wrote and published For Valour, the history of Southern Africas Victoria Cross Heroes. It has a natural successor in Enduring Valour as it updates the records of valour by South Africans. Uys has been interested in the personal reminiscences of personalities caught up in military history and has written many books about them.

He served in the Heidelberg Commando in the seventies. In 1977 he was a platoon commander in the operational area and was awarded the De Wet Decoration. In 1989 he ran for parliament as a Democratic Party candidate for Germiston District, a strong National Party ward. Though helost, hebelievesthatina small wayit contributedto the change inthe country the following year.

Uys is a practising auditor in Knysna and has three children and four grandchildren. He is a former chairman of the SA Military History Society, has completed ten Comrades Marathons of 90km and was a private pilot for many years. He has developed his familys Bushman Valley Resort near Prince Albert and is a keen nature conservationist.

Co-published in 2014 by:

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Originally published by Fortress Publishers (Pty) Ltd 1993 as, Bushman Soldiers. This revised and expanded edition co-published by Helion & Company and GG Books 2014

Designed and typeset by Pete Johnson, Stroud (www.greatwhitedesigns.com)
Cover designed by Euan Carter, Leicester (www.euancarter.com)
Printed by Lightning Source, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

Text Ian Uys 1993, 2014
Images as individually credited

ISBN: 978-1-909384-58-3
DIGITAL ISBN: 978-1-910294-92-5

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Contents

Foreword

The Bushmen were persecuted relentlessly for aeons, until they were eventually herded into the Kalahari of Botswana and Bushmanland of Namibia. Later some of these people moved northward and settled in Angola. Others moved eastward and settled in the Western Caprivi. Those that settled in Angola threw in their lot with the Portuguese Army against the terrorist forces that planned to liberate the country from Portuguese rule.

After the so-called liberation of Angola the Bushmen fled southward with other Portuguese refugees and were settled in the Western Caprivi. In September 1974 I was sent there to prepare a base for them. This base was to become the famous Camp Alpha and was later renamed Omega.

The Bushman soldier is unique in many respects. Born to use a bow and arrow, he learnt to use modern weapons with surprising efficiency, and his incredibly keen senses and thorough knowledge of the bush made of him a soldier feared by all that crossed his path.

Initially the Bushmen were used in counter-insurgency operations, but later they became involved in Operation Savannah where they were employed in a more conventional role. Later still they became involved in recce operations. Some of them even qualified as parachutists.

This book is long overdue, as little is known of the contribution the Bushman soldiers made in the recent border war. Few people realise that it was largely due to their presence in the area that South West Africa (now Namibia) was spared the rigours of a 15 year civil war.

Now that the Bushman Battalion has been disbanded only a few of those involved with the Bushman soldiers will remember them. Memories are short and unless their history is recorded, the stone age soldiers, as they have been called, and the good that they have done will soon be forgotten.

Bearing in mind the absence of records and the secrecy that surrounded the Bushman project at the time, the author is to be commended on writing this story.

With the independence of Namibia in 1990 the SADF honoured the promise made nearly two decades ago and gave them the opportunity of resettling in the RSA. Some declined the offer and either remained on in the Caprivi or returned to Angola.

Those that immigrated to the RSA were accommodated in a tent village in the vicinity of Schmidtsdrift near Kimberley. During a recent visit to the base with Ian Uys, a young teenage boy came up and introduced himself as Goovy Bambo, the son of Jack Bambo. Jack had been a leading figure in the early days of Alpha. He was not only my guide, he was also my mentor and my friend. He was one of the first war casualties. His widow, a teenage daughter and Goovy are now destitute.