South African Air Force honours bravery, courage and sacrifice
The memorial on Bays Hill honours all SAAF members who lost their lives in service.
Black News 
Members of the South African Air Force (SAAF) and veterans have remembered the thousands of brave men and women who have given their lives in service to South Africa.
Speaking at the annual SAAF memorial at Bays Hill outside Pretoria, acting Air Force Chaplain, Samuel Clive Britz, stressed the importance of remembering the fallen soldiers, saying we are here to honour bravery, courage and sacrifice.
He pointed out: “When we sign up to join the military, we also sign away the right to live; by joining the military we put sacrifice before self…. When a soldier goes to war there is no guarantee that we will return alive…wars are unpredictable, wars have been fought over all centuries. Even today there are still wars raging in Africa, the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine and Iran to mention just a few… Wars are messy and are often justified for good and bad reasons and soldiers and their families bear the brunt.”
He stressed: “It is not good enough to remember…there is an obligation to on all of us not just to remember, but to move beyond memory and take action. The state in which our country finds itself, it’s as if the citizens have forgotten something very important – we have forgotten sacrifice, selflessness and courage.. the values for which soldiers are willing to die…the South African Air Force is challenged to move beyond memory – to be intentional in our leadership and in our decision-making…. “
The new chief of the SAAF, Lieutenant General Carl Moatshe, laid the first wreath. This was his first memorial service since officially taking command on 1 April.
Other wreaths were laid by the first Black Chief of the Air Force, Lieutenant General Zimpande Msimang, who retired in 2020, defence attaches from Uruguay, the United States and Japan as well as the South African Air Force Association, the South African Korean War Veterans Association and the South African Legion of Military Veterans.
The memorial on Bays Hill honours all SAAF members who lost their lives in service, during both war and peacetime, from the First World War to today. Since the SAAF was founded in February 1920, more than 2 000 of its members have died in combat.
SAAF members saw action in World War II, the Korean war in the 1950s, the Border War as well as the United Nations and SADC missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. More recently, they have taken part in search and rescue, medical evacuations, and operations to provide disaster relief in Limpopo and Mozambique during the extensive floods earlier this year.
This was underlined by the presence of a white painted Oryx helicopter at the memorial. This is noted as the workhorse of the South African Air Force and these helicopters were often deployed for UN peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.
