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Santi (M J)

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No photograph available — remembrance poppy
Identity
Person No.
32798
Service No.
5086187
Last Name
Santi 1
First Name
Unknown
Initials
M J
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
1972 (±1 yr) 209
Age at Death
Unknown
Death Record
Date of Death
20 August 1998 95
Cause code
DIS 6,078
Died of disease
Cause of Death
Died of disease 858
Died of Medical Reason, at Hoedspruit, while off duty
Military Service
Branch
Navy
Rank
Sergeant
Regiment
SA Navy 8
Corps
South African Navy 439
Unit
61 Mechanised Battalion Group 12
Defence Force
SANDF 1,026
South African National Defence Force
Location
Country
South Africa 23,873
Locality
Gauteng 9,374
Cemetery
SADF WALL OF REMEMBRANCE, VOORTREKKER MONUMENT, PRETORIA 1,926
Grave Reference
Alternative Commemoration until grave found 1,612
Memorial
Memorial
SADF Wall of Remembrance
Location
On a koppie at the Voortrekker Monument, overlooking Pretoria
Address
Voortrekker Monument, Eeufees Road, Groenkloof, Pretoria, 0181, South Africa
Coordinates
-25.77639, 28.17583 · OpenStreetMap
Panel
Not listed against a numbered panel
On the panel
Position on the panel will be added with photographs
Unit History
Role at time of death
Mechanised Infantry (combined-arms battalion group)
Status
Regular Force
Part of
South African Defence Force (1957–1994) — I South African Corps (1 SA Corps) — Battlegroups
Formed 1978 as Battle Group Juliet (SWAPO counter-insurgency, Ovamboland); formally named 61 Mechanised Battalion (Group) January 1979; disbanded 2005 at Lohatla. "Battalion Group" reflects its integral combined-arms structure: two Ratel-20-mounted infantry companies, an armoured car/tank squadron (Eland/Ratel-90, later Olifant), an integral G5 howitzer artillery battery, an 81mm mortar platoon, an anti-tank platoon, and an anti-aircraft troop -- not merely units attached for one operation. Fought at the Battle of the Lomba River, 1987. No evidence found that it was ever subordinated to or redesignated as a "61 Mechanised Brigade" -- see the note on that separate OrgEntity record.
Notes

Ref SANDF 1998 RoH

Research notes


25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Navy" was CLEARED as a duplicate. It was not a sub-unit, it was a service-branch word repeating what the Branch column already says. Secondary Unit is for sub-units -- a company, a squadron, a commando -- and this record's branch of service is unchanged at "Navy".
Database-wide FirstName/Age contamination sweep (extension), 28 Sep 2026: FirstName 'Andile' and Age 26 were forward-filled from PersonNumber 32797 down a contiguous run of 2 records -- this record's own LastName ('Santi'), Initials ('M J'), ServiceNo ('5086187') and DateDeath ('1998-08-20') are all genuinely distinct, confirming a different real person whose FirstName/Age were simply never captured. Unlike the first pass of this sweep, Unit is NOT touched here -- it is not part of this contamination (see the Unit-restoration correction on the related run) and this record's own Unit ('61 Mechanised Battalion Group') is left exactly as found. FirstName and Age CLEARED; no replacement guessed.

Citations
Unknown
External References
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