Page 182 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

684 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

little fishing hamlet of Saldanha which led to the introduction of a few ‘Academy weekends’
per year during which girls from the main campus were invited to spend a weekend at the
Academy to socialise with the military students. The Academy students also attended social
events on the main campus from time to time, such as the annual ‘pop festival’ known as the
‘Akkerjol’. 31
By the late 1960s student organisations on the main campus, foremost amongst which
was the Afrikaanse Studentebond (Afrikaans Students’ Union), tried to involve the Academy
students at a formal level. These efforts were turned down by the Military Academy com-
mand structure, because the military degree courses were compressed into two years from
1970 (until 1976), which, together with the concurrent military training programme, left
virtually no time for such interaction. By 1970 the Military Academy was consequently
32
pretty much ‘a fully-fledged but often forgotten… [and] shamefully neglected… branch of
Stellenbosch University’. Hence four members of the editorial committee of Stellenbosch
33
University’s student’s newspaper, Die Matie, paid a visit to Saldanha to ‘see what the lot of
Maties out there are up to and to find out whether it is possible to establish more interaction
with the friendly guys at Saldanha’. This visit resulted in a double-page photo article on the
34
Academy in Die Matie which explained the nature and activities of the Faculty of Military
35
Science/Military Academy and emphasised they were part and parcel of Stellenbosch’s stu-
dent body. The article stressed that the Academy was an important national asset entrusted to
Stellenbosch University and asked the question: ‘How long are we going to wait before we
involve the forgotten Maties of Saldanha in our activities? Will we only realise the necessity
to involve them when this one and only Military Academy of our country decides to sever its
ties with Stellenbosh University and become a faculty of the University of South Africa?’ 36
This view of the Military Academy from the main campus was seemingly a far cry from
Du Toit’s derogatory utterances quoted above. Times had changed, the Afrikaners’ post-
World War Two resentment of the military was long gone and as an Afrikaner educational
stronghold, Stellenbosch University, particularly its student body, by and large identified
with the RSAs struggle against the perceived communist threat on its borders – the so-called
Bush War. By the 1970s Afrikaner hegemony was at its height. From that perspective the Mi-

31 SANDFA, AG (Gp. 1, classified) 12, HWA(C)403/67/72, minutes of Board of Enquiry, 13 September 1967;
SANDFA, Mil. Acad. (Gp. 3) 158, G/TRG/6/2/0 (Confidential) vol. 4, information brochure, n.d. [April
1972]; P.D. Steyn – G.E. Visser, interview, Pretoria, 25 November 1994; P.O. Verbeek – G.E. Visser, inter-
view, Saldanha, 20 December 1996; F.E. du Toit – G.E. Visser, telephonic interview, 15 June 1999.
32 SANDFA, Mil. Acad. (Gp. 3) 61, G/OPS/13 vol. 1, J.A. Loubser – Lt. G.N. Opperman, 18 October 1969;
SANDFA, Mil. Acad. (Gp. 3) 61, G/OPS/13 vol. 1, OC. Mil. Acad. - J.A. Loubser, 31 October 1969.
33 P. de Villiers (with photograps by J. van den Heever): ‘Saldanha: Fort van ons vergete Maties’. Die Matie, 7
Augustus 1970, p. 4 (author’s translation).
34 P. de Villiers (with photograps by J. van den Heever): ‘Saldanha: Fort van ons vergete Maties’. Die Matie, 7
Augustus 1970, p. 4 (author’s translation).
35 P. de Villiers (with photograps by J. van den Heever): ‘Saldanha: Fort van ons vergete Maties’. Die Matie, 7
August 1970, pp. 4-5.
36 P. de Villiers (with photograps by J. van den Heever): ‘Saldanha: Fort van ons vergete Maties’. Die Matie, 7
August 1970, p. 5 (author’s translation).