AFRICA NEWSLETTER

Africa’s Commandos Report

The Association has just about broken even with original costs of publishing (R 320 000.00) but ran

out of hard cover books. This has been rectified with some 600 soft copies recovered with hard

backs. The hard covers were by far the best seller at the launches and subsequently. From next

month the book will be published via Hellion publishers in the UK and they will distribute for us in

the USA, Europe and Australia. Also distributed by 30 Degrees South (South Africa). The Association

therefore will keep a very limited stock holding within our stores. Books for the short term can still

be purchased directly online at the link: http://www.therli.com/F_Shopnew.asp but this will only be

until the stocks are depleted. All profits from sales are destined to the Shamwari Trust to help our

less fortunate brothers in arms..

2013 Annual Reunion

The Annual reunion was held over the weekend of 1st

/2nd

February with an informal gathering taking

place on the Friday night at Dickie Fritz. This evening was well attended with old and new faces seen.

A good time was had by all with lots of banter taking place.

The late Joe Wiper, Merv Gallias and Ian Rose

The Saturday function

This was held at the Victoria Lake Club in Germiston. Before the service took place and the colours

were marched on, all the ‘Ouens’ formed a circle under the guidance of Titch Brotherton and a toast

to the regiment was proposed by Trooper Janie Van Wyk.

The Remembrance service for all the Fallen was conducted by Padre Bill Dodgen with the setting

over-looking the lake.

The service was followed by a dinner and dance with a live band and music from the past, which was

well received with lots of people showing their moves on the dance floor.

The food was excellent and the ambiance fitting for the occasion. The evening wound down at

around 23h00.

A big thank you to all those who travelled from afar i.e. Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Town, Durban,

East London and Port Elizabeth.

Viscount Umniati Memorial Service – 9th

February 2013

The Memorial Service for the passengers and crew of Viscount Umniati was held at the very

impressive Viscount Memorial at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. Air Rhodesians Flight 827,

Viscount Umniati, was the second Viscount shot down by ZIPRA terrorists on the 12th

February 1979

shortly after take-off from Kariba. There were no survivors.

Benoni High School Pipe Band, past world champions, provided the music whilst guests arrived,

greeted and took their

seats

The Service was conducted by Padre Bill Dodgen and Mike Westcott gave a very warm tribute to the

victims of this tragedy. Mike Westcott read out the Roll of Honour which brought tears to many of

the guests and a two minute silence in honour of the victims and their families was observed.

Bill Dodgen Mike Westcott

The Service was well attended with guests arriving from all over the country.

After paying tribute to the victims, a very moving rendition of The Last Post was played by Laura van

Niekerk and the Rhodesian flag was lowered.

Reveille was played by Benoni High School Band and this was followed by the Wreath laying

ceremony.

A couple of RLI ‘ouens’ were asked to lay Wreaths for the passengers and crew of the Viscount

Umniati.

After the Benediction, the Benoni High School Band led the procession to the picnic area where lit

braais were ready and guests relaxed and mingled reminiscing the ‘good ol’ days’. Mile Westcott

entertained throughout the day but the highlight of the afternoon was the fly past of a Hawker

Hunter jet. The pilot did a couple of fly pasts leaving all in awe of this impressive jet from days gone

by.

The day ended with the draw for the magnificent Elephant painting done by Craig Bone and

generously donated by him. A few other items of Rhodesiana and some books were auctioned off

and the day ended with all having had an awesome day out.

Gauteng monthly get-together

After a favourable response to an email sent out by the Gauteng Regional Representative, Bucs

Theron, it has been decided to move the monthly get-together to the first Saturday of every month,

starting at noon, with the first being held on the 6th

April which showed a marked increase in

attendance.

A roll of honour was read for all fallen in the month of April and a toast made, this will be the norm

going forward.

Please be reminded that you are welcome to bring family or friends to the monthly get-together.

All Forces Bash – Saturday 14 April The All Forces bash was a great success and well executed, well

done to Carol for organising and to Lynette who provided a great lunch. As always with Carol at

hand the event went off without a hitch and was enjoyed by all.

.

A few of the ‘Ouens’ and friends doing a bit of catch up whilst Carol worked

away…

We had Hannes Botha from the Zimbabwean Pensioners Support Fund who gave us a run down on

the Pensioners plight in Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwean Pensioners Support fund is no longer able to receive food parcels due to the

political situation in Zimbabwe and ask that donations be made instead. The Pensioners in

Zimbabwe really need our help and any donation would be welcome. For further information or to

find out how to go about giving a donation, go to their website http:/zpsf.terapad.com

Forthcoming events

SADF REMEMBERANCE DAY:

The Rhodesian Light Infantry have been asked to lay a wreath at this day. The service will be held at

the SA Defence Force Wall of Remembrance at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria at 0900 for

0940 on Sunday 26th

May 2013. Dress code is Blazer with medals, tie and beret. We welcome all to

attend.

DAY AT THE RANGE:

The RLI RA Committee is arranging a morning at a firing range when the OWENS can fire off a few

rounds. As soon as a date has been confirmed we will send out the details to everyone but we do

know that it will be a Saturday morning either towards the end of May or early June – Best shot wins

a prize.

PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)

The committee has been in touch with an Ex SADF service-man who did time in Angola and is now a

Specialist Traumaologist with a PhD, Dr P Jones.

Dr P Jones has agreed to come and discuss the symptoms and effectives of Post-Traumatic Stress

with us. We are awaiting a date from Dr P Jones so that we can arrange a venue and send out

details to all the members.

There is a new understanding about PTSD and we encourage all members to come and listen in.

Charlie Norris

Chairman – RLI RA Africa

Eastern Cape Sitrep

What’s happening in the Eastern Cape or should I say what’s not happening in the Eastern Cape, as

we are of few brave souls and split over a large area it is not often that we see each other. Other

than Mark Taunton and self, we don’t really see the other members until there is a birthday bash. It

is funny though, the older we get, the more we seem to dream of the old days, lost loves, lost

friends and family and mostly the loss of our beloved country.

My dreams and thoughts have been heightened by the advent of the new RLI book and the new

Scouts book. Both bring back poignant memories of the brave men and women that we served with,

some still here today, some sadly have since passed away, but we will remember. The other day we

had the sad duty of attending my Boet’s wife funeral that lost her final battle with cancer. The good

thing about the funeral was that it showed Rhodies commitment to each other even in these days. It

was very humbling to Have Pat Armstrong, Kip Donald and Tom Thomas attends the funeral service.

It was hilarious sitting with them at the wake after and listening to the good old Rhodesian humour,

if you are ever in the company of one of these gentlemen (especially Kip) ask them about “Leg over

Lucy” and “Apples and Pro Vitas”. My thanks to all three gentlemen who took the time to honour my

brother in his time of grief.

On a more serious note, we have been honoured by the MOTH organisation in that they have invited

to lay a wreath on the Poppy Day parade every year, both the RLIRA and the Selous Scout

association. This will be the third year that we will attend as RLIRA and the first year for the Scouts

Association. Every year it brings tears to the eyes of Rhodies in the crowd to see the RLI beret marching by,

now this year with is both Scouts and RLI. I would like to invite all members in the Eastern Cape who

want to attend these ceremonies to please contact me.

As a last thought, if any of you are not members of the MOTH organisation, think seriously about

joining it, they have been the saviour of many of us in times of need.

Pete Gombart

Recent Jols – KZN Region.

It has been a long time since there was an e Cheetah report from the Regions,

but alas all is quiet on the “Eastern” coast. There have been the regular First

Friday get togethers at the NMR and a few other social events related to the

forming of Shamwari Trust in KZN which is ably headed by George “Papi” Bolton

(1 Cdo).

Most recently was the Durban Exhibition Knife Show which was held in Umhlanga

and Andy Surgeon (2 Cdo) had a display of his excellently hand crafted knives,

including a few that he has left of the RLI 50th Commemorative knife. Should you

want one of these collectors items please order through the Association?

Towards the end of last year was the Flame Lily’s annual Golf day which is

represented by at least one four ball from the RLI. The RLI four ball never seems

to scoop any prizes and this may be credited to the fact that beers were already

slipping down before Tee off at 8.00am.

13th October last year saw the inaugural launch of “Africa’s Commandos” which

naturally was hosted by Durban – we set the high benchmark for the other

regions to follow! It was good to catch up with a lot of the ouens who came from

all over the Province and a pleasing amount of books were sold.

A regular event in Durban is the annual SAS Remembrance service held at the

Flame Lily retirement centre in Queensbrough which is attended by all the

Rhodesian Associations including some SANDF units. This year the RLI RA was

invited to share the Sentry around the Plinth for the service and I would like to

thank the SAS RA for our inclusion in your special event.

RLI & SAS Sentry 10.11.12 Remembrance service.

RLI Contingent

Flame Lily Golf Day – Amanzimtoti. RLI “Golfers”.

Lana Michell, Basil Dipenaar, Dave Hosking, Robin Tarr.

Chinas signing on (new members) – No new members as such, but Ian (Boss

Doug) Douglas has joined our socials, Boss Doug was a PJI at New Sarum so a

few may remember him.

(Skippy Michell)

Shamwari Trust

The activities within the combined forces welfare trust (Shamwari Trust) are

gaining momentum fast. There is a fund raising team now well established in

Kwazulu Natal that has held a number of fundraising events to date and are set

for a very busy remainder of 2013. The Trust is exploring a number of avenues

to establish fund raising events and secure donors into the future. A number of

associations have made donations to the Trust as seeding finance and this is a

really good show. The Trust has also had some very generous personal

donations from ex RLI men and this is a blessing to the welfare to say the least.

Ian Bate represents the RLI RA and is current chairman of the Trust. There are a

number of initiatives in the Trust that are in the boiling pot and as the

Association is informed of the developments we will let you all know.

Bill Wiggill

CEO