Coetsee, Zirk Burger

Identity

Person No.

29784

Service No.

85258192PE

Last Name

Coetsee 6

First Name

Zirk Burger

Initials

Z B

Date of Birth

Unknown

Est. Birth Year

1969 (±1 yr) 300

Age at Death

30

Death Record

Date of Death

22 September 1999 98

Cause code

SHOT 545

Shot

Cause of Death

Died of injuries 577

Lieutenant Sibusiso Madubela went on a murder rampage at 1 South African Infantry Battalion because of a salary problem, which he caused by himself for being Absent Without Leave (AWOL), and systematically started shooting serving members and civilian employees with his R4 Assault Rifle. His rampage came to an abrupt end when he was intercepted and shot dead by Lieutenant Anton Otto and Warrant Officer Class I Aldo Mattheus (who was also wounded in the fire-fight) while on his way back to the Unit Armoury to replenish his ammunition. Seven SANDF members and one female civilian employee were killed, and twelve SANDF members were wounded, one of them critically

Military Service

Branch

Army

Rank

Major

Regiment

1 South African Infantry Battalion 110

Corps

South African Infantry Corps 10,341

Unit

Unknown

Secondary Unit

Army

Defence Force

SANDF 1,017

South African National Defence Force

Location

Country

South Africa 23,847

Locality

Free State 737

Cemetery

BLOEMFONTEIN (SOUTHPARK) CEMETERY 50

Grave Reference

Section 38. E. 46 S. 1

Unit History

Role at time of death

Infantry (Mechanised)

Status

Permanent Force (Regular)

Part of

Infantry Formation (SAAIF) — Mechanised Infantry — Regular

Listed under South African Army Infantry (Mechanised) (Regular) in the SA Army Units navbox.

Notes

Husband of Mrs. L. Coetsee

Research notes

Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post 16 Sep 2026: 85258129PE Major Zirk Burger Coetzee, critically wounded in the same rampage, succumbed to his wounds in Pelonomie Hospital on 22 Sep 1999, age 31. CauseDeath clarified (see Coetzer 29807 note). MATCHES this existing record (stored as "Coetsee", ServiceNo "85258192PE") on FirstName/Initials/Rank/DateDeath exactly -- CONFLICTS flagged, not changed: surname spelling "Coetsee" vs Graham's "Coetzee" (a plausible alternate Afrikaans spelling, not necessarily an error), ServiceNo "85258192PE" vs Graham's "85258129PE" (the last two digits look transposed -- 92 vs 29 -- not resolved which is correct), and age 31 vs stored Age 30.

Citations

Unknown

External References

Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post
Graham Last Post 16 Sep 2026
South African War Graves Project open source ↗

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Coetsee , Zirk Burger (Z B)