Pieter Nortje
(better known as Piet) is a son of the Karoo who reported for compulsory military service in 1978. After completing a Junior Leaders course, he became one of 45 volunteers from Infantry School for the inaugural 32 Battalion reconnaissance wing selection and training course.
It was tough going and he was one of the 15 candidates who made selection and training. He decided to become a career soldier and joined the South African Defence Force (SADF) permanently. He elected to remain with 32 Battalion when the reconnaissance wing was disbanded, and was appointed training sergeant major at Buffalo base in the Caprivi. At 25 he became the youngest Permanent Force Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) in the SADF’s history, a remarkable achievement as 32 Battalion was fast becoming one of the SADF’s biggest operational units.
During a decade of service with the battalion, Nortje took part in most of the major SADF operations inside Angola. As RSM, he had a unique vantage point from which to experience history in the making, as former Angolan rebels were moulded into a fully-fledged SADF unit that retired from the battlefield undefeated after 12 years of constant front-line combat.
Nortje was earmarked to become the Gazankulu Defence Force sergeant major should Gazankulu, as with the TBVC states, be granted independence from South Africa. In January 1988, he was transferred to 113 Battalion, the Shangaan ethnical battalion at Phalaborwa, the battalion earmarked to form the nucleus of the Gazankulu Defence Force should independence be granted, which never happened.
At the end of compulsory military service for white South Africans in 1992, 113 Battalion was integrated into 7 SA Infantry Battalion, a conscript National Service unit, and Nortje was transferred there as training sergeant major.
In 1996 he was appointed RSM of 121 SA Infantry Battalion, the ethnical Zulu battalion at Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal.
In 2005, after 10 years as the 121 SAI Bn RSM, Nortje resigned from the SANDF to take up a Military Contract Officer post with a captain rank in the United Emirates Armed Forces, responsible for the Border Guard’s northern battalion training and operationally advising the battalion commander. In 2014 he was promoted to major and continued serving in the Border Guard till August 2021 when he retired from military service.
The journey to becoming an author was not one of intention or foresight for him. His inaugural book emerged from a compelling desire to document the history of 32 Battalion, an elite unit of the former South African Defence Force, in which he had served for nearly a decade. By 1994 he was serving at 7 South African Infantry Battalion (7 SAI Bn), under the command of Commandant (Lieutenant Colonel) Werner Sott, a fellow former 32 Battalion officer. Although they occasionally reminisced about their previous unit, these conversations never extended beyond casual discussions.
Following the disbandment of 32 Battalion in March 1993, a company from the battalion was reassigned to 7 SAI Bn, integrating as Delta Company. Despite their shared history, this company received no special treatment and was considered equal to the Shangaan troops already stationed there. Shortly after the disbandment, rumors circulated that the unit’s regimental fund had financed a professional author to chronicle the history of 32 Battalion. However, no book materialized.
Commandant Sott was eventually transferred, and Commandant Daan van der Merwe, also a former 32 Battalion officer, assumed command of 7 SAI Bn. During the command changeover, the topic of 32 Battalion’s disbandment surfaced in an officer’s bar discussion, where Commandant Sott remarked on the necessity of documenting the unit’s history. He mentioned the circulating rumor, which concluded their conversation.
Four years later, the anticipated book remained unwritten, with only a 40-page staff paper by Major Wally Very, the last adjudant of 32 Battalion, providing a brief unit history. Transferred to 121 SA Infantry Battalion (121 SAI Bn) in Mtubatuba, he coincidentally arrived there at the same time as the newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Wally Very, who took command. Additionally, Lieutenant Colonel Joe Maree, another former 32 Battalion officer, was appointed commander of 11 SA Infantry Battalion (11 SAI Bn) in Jozini, northern Natal. The two battalions held quarterly sports competitions, during which discussions about 32 Battalion’s history resurfaced.
In 1996, after one such competition, the absence of a comprehensive history of 32 Battalion was again lamented by Lieutenant Colonels Very and Maree. Despite both serving until the unit’s disbandment, they confirmed that the rumored book was never written. It had been six years since the unit’s disbandment, and 32 Battalion seemed destined to be forgotten. The decision to write about the unit remains a mystery to him, especially given his lack of writing experience. Nonetheless, he resolved to undertake the task, marking the beginning of his unexpected career as an author.