Commando System (South Africa)

The Commando system existed from the 1770s. The early Boer Commando system was a conscriptive service designed to provide a quickly-trained fighting force.

Commandos were a product of the First Boer War[2] during which the fiercely independent Boers had no regular army. When danger threatened, all the men in a district would form a militia organised into military units called commandos and would elect officers. Being civilian militia, each man wore what they wished, usually everyday neutral or earthtone khaki farming clothes such as a jacket, trousers and slouch hat. Each man brought his own weapon, usually a hunting rifle, and his own horses. The average Boer citizens who made up their commandos were farmers who had spent almost all their working life in the saddle, and because they had to depend on both their horse and their rifle for almost all of their meat, they were skilled hunters and expert marksmen. Most of the Boers had single-shot breech-loading rifles such as the Westley Richards, the Martini-Henry, or the Remington Rolling Block. Only a few had repeaters like the Winchester or the Swiss Vetterli. As hunters they had learned to fire from cover, from a prone position and to make the first shot count, knowing that if they missed the game would be long gone. At community gatherings, target shooting was a major sport and competitions used targets such as hens eggs perched on posts 100 yards away. The commandos became expert light cavalry, making use of every scrap of cover, from which they could pour an accurate and destructive fire at the British with their breech-loading rifles which could be rapidly aimed, fired, and reloaded.

At least during the Second Boer War each commando was attached to a town, after which it was named (e.g. Bloemfontein Commando). Each town was responsible for a district, divided into wards. The Commando was commanded by a Kommandant and each ward by a Veldkornet or field-cornet - equivalent of a senior NCO rank.

The Veldkornet was responsible not only for calling up the burghers, but also for policing his ward, collecting taxes, issuing firearms and other material in times of war. Theoretically, a ward was divided into corporalships. A corporalship was usually made up of about 20 burghers. Sometimes entire families filled a corporalship.

The Veldkornet was responsible to the Kommandant, who in turn was responsible to a General. In theory, a General was responsible for four commandos. He in turn was responsible to the Commander-in-Chief (CIC) of the Republic. In the Transvaal, the CIC was called the Commandant-General and in the Free State the Hoofdkommandant or Chief Commandant. The CIC was responsible to the President.

Other auxiliary ranks were created in war time, such as Vleiskorporaal ("meat corporal"), responsible for issuing rations.

Each community was divided up into smaller more manageable sections called cells. Each cell comprised a number of farmers and or households, depending on the size of the area and dispersion of the area's inhabitants. Cell members were in contact with each other by means of telephone or a radio system (Marnet) which served as a backup communication system in the event of the telephone lines being out of order. Alternative communication systems were therefore a vital element of the protection plan of any cell. The cell members would have a communication link with their cell leader (who was elected by the members) who, in turn, had a communication link with the local police station. This ensured quick reaction by the police in the event of an attack. The cell leader could notify the local Commando if a stronger force was required.

This process of communication was time-consuming and, therefore, the members of a cell would be able to protect themselves and rely on support from neighbours and other members of the cell to ensure immediate response in an emergency. For this reason a cell would plan for certain contingencies before they happen. The local Commando would assist the cells with drawing up contingency plans.

"The farmer-commandos receive a few weekends of training as army reservists and are each given an assault rifle. When they respond to an incident, the police do, too. But the police force is stretched thin in farm areas, trying to cover vast areas with few officers or vehicles. The farmers often get there much sooner."[3]

The retirement age of members of the commandos was 65 although it could be extended to 75 years.[4]

Voluntary Service Award (variations)

Community cells were administered under distinct local commando units.

Several local commandos units were administered as Group units.

Several Groups, usually in a provincial context resorted under a Provincial Command.

The Commando System had its own Commando Training School, where skills received from National Service was sharpened.

SADF Commando School Danie Theron

Under the SADF, Commando units were grouped regionally under Commands: (Please note: This was not a wholly static structure and units could move occasionally between Groups, the diagrams below depict the structure from the late 1980s)

By 2005, after Army restructuring several groups became amalgamated under General Support Bases, GSBs. Group numbers therefore did not follow the original sequence.[5]

• 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2005: Group 36 in Bloemfontein and Group 46 in Mthata and seventeen commandos were closed down. Any remaining commandos of these Groups were transferred to Group 24 in Kroonstad and Group 6 in Port Elizabeth.
• 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006: Groups 33 in Nelspruit with the Soutpansberg Military Area, Group 30 in Potchefstroom, Group 16 in Marievale, Group 22 in Kimberly with various commandos
• The last commando unit, Harrismith Commando based in the Free State, was disbanded in March 2008.

At their peak 186 of these units, ranging in size from a company to a battalion, existed. The number of individual commando members varied according to different sources, but it is estimated that there were between 50,000 and 70,000.[15] Data from the official army magazine SA Soldier of November 2005 states that at closure the composition of the Commandos were:

• African: 15134 members
• White: 32136 members
• Coloured: 4626 members
• Asian: 328 members[16]

These members were given three options:

• Demobilise and no longer be a member of the SANDF
• Join the SAPS as a reservist
• Join the Army Conventional Reserve regiments if compliant to age and medical criteria and undergo conversion training.