The South African Special Forces Brigade (popularly known as “Recces”) is the only Special Forces unit of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
On 1 October 1972, 1 Reconnaissance Commando was created at Oudtshoorn, South Africa. It was relocated a few years later to Durban, South Africa. This was the first South African Special Forces unit.
The South African special forces played a significant role in the country’s 30 year long border war in Namibia and Angola.
South African Special Forces now consists of Special Forces Headquarters in Pretoria, 4 Special Forces Regiment in Langebaan, 5 Special Forces Regiment – Phalaborwa and the Special Forces School in Murrayhill.
4 Special Forces Regiment specialise in maritime-related activities, whereas 5 Special Forces regiment specialises more in overland techniques, especially long-range infiltration.
The Brigade is directly under the command of the Joint Operations Division of the SANDF, and unlike other similar forces worldwide, is not a part of the South African Army.
Selection
The Ultimate Challenge, as South African Special Forces Selection is often called, is considered one of the harder special forces selection courses in the world.[6] A soldier must meet very high requirements to even attend Special Forces Selection. In accordance with SANDF regulation, only South African citizens are permitted.
Pre-selection training
This includes all aspects of psychological and physical tests. For the psychological tests, soldiers will be given written tests and oral interviews with Special Forces NCOs. A soldier must be self-controlled and mature. Soldiers are ejected from the course if there is any suggestion of mental instability. The Physical Test includes 40 continuous push ups, 67 sit ups in two minutes, fireman lift, three-kilometre run in full gear in thirteen minutes, a rope climb (to show upper body strength ), 40 shuttle runs in 95 seconds and wall scaling. A student must scale a 10-foot-high (3.0 m) wall, complete a fifteen-kilometre march in less than 120 minutes and perform 120 shuttle kicks.
Parachute selection course
Basic Parachute School is one of the most demanding. All Special Forces candidates who aren’t parachute-qualified will have to attend this course.
Special Forces selection
Selection is an event during which candidates are placed in an extremely mentally and physically demanding set of situations and circumstances, through which they must pass. It is in duration approximately a week. For the duration of Selection, the candidates do not sleep or eat, and have no rest period at all. Only an extremely small percentage of persons who begin Selection ever pass it. In some years, no-one has managed to pass Selection, and there are other cases where only 1 or 2 persons out of an entire Selection group pass.
Training cycle
Once past the Selection process, he will be placed on a training cycle to acquire the skills required. These include: air co-operation, water orientation, obstacle crossing, bushcraft, tracking and survival, demolitions and tactics in urban as well as rural areas.
Advanced Airborne Training: a recruit will be taught about military free-fall such as HALO and HAHO. They will also learn about helicopter operations – how to rappel fast down a rope out of helicopters. Combat extraction is also taught, along with learning how to set up a LZ.
Land training consists of many things: including sniping, demolitions and reconnaissance. Bushcraft and survival is also taught. Climbing and photography are taught to new recruits. Urban and rural combat is perhaps the newest training – developed quite recently, this training provided South Africa with a new counter-terrorist force. Medical and communications training is also given to those who wish to become qualified.
Maritime training consists of the use of small boats, underwater demolitions, swimming, diving, beach reconnaissance and navigation.
Operator’s Badge
All South African Special Forces operators receive the Operator’s Badge, which is given only to those members who have completed all the qualifications as an Operator. It consists of an inverted Commando Knife within a laurel wreath, which is meant to symbolise both special forces (the knife) and victory (the wreath).
Standard operator badges are silver, but a gold badge with an embedded diamond is awarded to Operators with more than 10 years of active service.