The Reluctant Soldier: A non-conventional story of a conscript unwillingly involved in events that would change South Africa forever. A diifferent view of the Border war and Townships, 1983-1991

In the early 1980’s the South African Government was fighting a low scale war on all fronts to defend its apartheid policies. Before 1984, the majority of that war was being fought in neighbouring countries, known as “The Border War”, but after political blunders in 1983, intimidation and violence escalated in the “black” townships, threatening the peace in the “white” suburbs and cities.
This is the true story of a young white conscripted soldier, with no belief in what he was fighting for or the reasoning behind it, but without realising it at the time, he was involved in events that although designed to support the government policies, it would eventually force them to dismantle apartheid. The journey sees a naïve 17 year old leaving school, following intense training in Bloemfontein, finds himself on the frontline in the Battle for Cuvelai in Southern Angola, part of Operation Askari, followed by months of Counter Insurgency operations on the SWA/ Namibia border, only to return to Johannesburg to become one of the first soldiers to be deployed in the tumultuous smouldering black townships, supposedly to quell the violence but inadvertently becoming the catalyst for more violence. A couple of years later, he is forced to return to the biggest township, Soweto only to find that the situation had significantly deteriorated and coming to the realisation that the general public are not aware the South Africa is in a low scale civil war.
The story is not one of bravado or political justification; it is just an account of how an average person forced into an unpalatable situation gets through. A situation experienced by many throughout history who have been conscripted, no matter which side they are fighting for.