Identity
Person No.
31551
Old ROH no.
878
Service No.
81533671SP
Last Name
First Name
Joao Rodriques
Initials
J R
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
33
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
ACC 1,584
Accident
Cause of Death
Due to tactical circumstances, the troop got stuck in the mud of a shona near the Lomba River during a tank fight, and the Ratel 90 was destroyed at point blank by a T55 tank. The commander,2Lt Alves, his crew as well as 32 Bn members were killed instantly. The tank round penetrated the Ratel through the side door, detonated in the main ammunition storage container and resulted in an explosion causing the vehicle to catch fire. (Operation Modular)
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Lance Corporal
Regiment
32 (Buffalo) Battalion 275
Later renamed
32 Battalion
Unit
Unknown
Defence Force
SADF 3,832
South African Defence Force
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Memorial
Memorial
Location
Within the Voortrekker Monument heritage precinct, Pretoria
Address
Coordinates
Panel
On the panel
No. 126
Memorial
Memorial
Location
Cuito Cuanavale, Cuando Cubango province, Angola
Coordinates
Panel
On the panel
Operation Moduler
Operation
Operation
Dates
1987-08-01 to 1987-11-15
About
Operation launched to support UNITA against a major FAPLA offensive aimed at capturing UNITA's stronghold of Mavinga. Culminated in the Battle of the Lomba River (September-October 1987), where SADF mechanised and artillery forces, fighting alongside UNITA, halted and largely destroyed FAPLA's 47 Brigade attempting to cross the river — the action in which several ROH records on this site (Alves, De Klerk, Kuyler, McCallum, Mananza, Tchipango and others) were killed when their Ratel 90 was destroyed at point-blank range by a T-55 tank.
Awards
South Africa
Pro Patria Medal warrant, Government Gazette No. 5171 (25 Jun 1976), Rule 5, as amended by GG No. 5575 (3 Jun 1977); discontinued by GG No. 25213 (25 Jul 2003, Schedule corrected by GG No. 26778, 17 Sep 2004) for service on/after 27 Apr 2003. Gazette extracts: https://rohsa.co.za/award.php?id=24
Notes
Husband of Mrs. A. F. Mananza
Research notes
Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post 13 Sep 2026 / Bushwar Books Lest We Forget 13 September (https://www.warbooks.co.za/posts/lest-we-forget-13-september/ 81533671SP Lance Corporal Joao Rodrigues Mananza, 32 Battalion, same Ratel 90 incident, age 33. Exact match.
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Air Force" was CLEARED. It was not a sub-unit, it was a service-branch word, and it CONTRADICTED this record's own Branch, "Army". Across the roll 787 records carried such a contradiction; judged against Corps and Regiment -- independent of both columns -- the evidence backed Branch 744 times and Unit2 not once. Branch is therefore kept and the contradicting word removed. Nothing is guessed: this man's branch of service is already recorded, and his sub-unit, if any, is simply not known.
Citations
Unknown
External References
-
Bushwar Books - Lest We Forget
open source ↗
Lest We Forget 13 September
-
Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post
Graham Last Post 13 Sep 2026
-
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), pages 66-76 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
Stories 1
13 Sep 1987: Six members of 32 Battalion were Killed in Action in a single incident during Ops Modular in Southern Angola. A 32 Battalion Anti-Tank Ratel 90, Callsign 13, Commanded by 2/Lieutenant Jose Raymond Alves became bogged down in a muddy shona while engaging FAPLA manned Soviet T-55 tanks. Before the men could extricate themselves, their Ratel 90 was hit and destroyed at point blank by a Soviet T-55 tank shell. The tank round penetrated the Ratel through the side door and detonated inside the main ammunition storage container. This resulted in an explosion within the Ratel causing the vehicle to catch fire. The Ratel crew and passengers were all killed instantly in the explosion. The burnt out Ratel was later destroyed by SADF Engineers to prevent its capture. Captain Alfred Desmond McCallum was the Commanding Officer of Foxtrot Company. Those Killed in Action were: 74316175PK Captain Alfred Desmond McCallum. He was 28 83502815BG 2/Lieutenant Jose Raymond Alves. He was 20. 83302422BG Lance Corporal Matthys Michael De Klerk. He was 20. 832441178BG Trooper Marthinus Johannes Kuyler. He was 20. 81533671SP Lance Corporal Joao Rodrigues Mananza. He was 33. 76928621SP Lance Corporal Waite Tchipango. He was 31
Dedications
No dedications have been added yet.