Identity
Person No.
30553
Old ROH no.
533
Service No.
05559893E
Last Name
First Name
Renier Niccolaas
Initials
R N
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
24
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
AA 1,737
Aircraft accident
Cause of Death
Killed in aircraft accident, flew into Devils Peak, Cape Town, whilst taking part in a rehearsal for the 1971 Republic Day celebrations, in Hawker Siddeley HS125 Mercurious #03. He was a Springbok rugby player who toured Britain in 1969/70
Military Service
Branch
Air Force
Rank
Corporal
Regiment
Unit
Unknown
Secondary Unit
Air Force
Defence Force
SADF 3,821
South African Defence Force
Location
Country
Locality
Grave Reference
Coordinates
Notes
Husband of Mrs. H. Grobler. ref. 85 years of SAAF
Research notes
5 Sep 2026: Unit "21 Squadron" (a squadron, SAAF's regiment-equivalent) promoted to Regiment, per John's decision. Corps (South African Air Force) unchanged.
Citations
Unknown
External References
-
SADF.info Border Roll of Honour
open source ↗
SADF.info Border RoH
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
-
The War in Angola
open source ↗
War In Angola Roll of Honour (warinangola.com, tabid=1175), page 7 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
Stories 1
A young speedy winger by the name of Renier Grobler had a phenomenal rise to Bok colours in 1969. He made his debut when Northern Transvaal beat the 1969 Australians 13-3 and scored a try. He would play two more games for N.TVL and scored a try in the 1969 Currie Cup final against WP at Loftus. That match is fondly remembered for Frik du Preez's "gedrop, geplace en gescore" exploits. The public questioned Grobler's selection, citing inexperience. He gave a good account of himself on tour and was not overawed by the task at hand. The following year, a series of injuries kept him out of the N.TVL team and in 1971 he was slowly working his way up through the N.TVL B side. On the day 26 May 1971, the touring 1971 French side ripped apart W.TVL 50-0 in Potchefstroom, Grobler a corporal in the SAAF, was a passenger in one of three SAAF Hawker-Siddeley HS -125 (code named Mercurius). The SAAF were doing a practice run for the 10th anniversary Republic Day Celebrations in Cape Town and due to low clouds around Rhodes Memorial, the three executive jets slammed into the mountain at high speeds killing all eleven men. Remnants of that crash still remain, but tragically "Rysmier" Grobler was lost to South African rugby forever.
Dedications
No dedications have been added yet.