Identity
Person No.
33168
Old ROH no.
1376
Service No.
78667482KD
Last Name
First Name
Heyletta
Initials
H
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
40
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
NAT 763
Natural causes
Military Service
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Coordinates
Memorial
Memorial
Location
On a koppie at the Voortrekker Monument, overlooking Pretoria
Address
Coordinates
Panel
On the panel
1978 Army. Right column. 26th name from the top (Swanepoel H.)
Unit History
Role at time of death
Infantry (area defence)
Status
Commando (Area Bound Reserve)
Part of
SADF Commando System
category
Generic Regiment-field text used across hundreds of records whose actual unit is a specific local Commando (e.g. Rustenburg Commando, Boksburg Commando -- captured in Unit). Post-WWII, "Commando" is its own force-component category alongside Regular/Permanent Force and Active Citizen Force -- area-bound, part-time reserve units tied to a specific district, mobilised for local counter-insurgency/area protection duties during the Border War era. Not a single regiment; this Status applies to the whole category.
Notes
A volunteer housewife who died of a heart attack on the shooting range during an exercise
Research notes
SADF Wall of Remembrance (Voortrekker Monument): named on photograph "1978 SAA (Castle–Havenga, Mennigke–Wolfgang)". 1978 Army. Right column. 26th name from the top (Swanepoel H.).
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Army" 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 "Army".
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 79 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
Stories
No stories have been added yet.
Dedications 1
Heyletta Swanepoel (Etta) was a volunteer housewife in Bronkhorstspruit Commando who, at the age of 40, died of a heart attack on the shooting range during an exercise. She died on the 17th of June 1978, leaving her husband and two sons aged 8 and 10. She will live forever in our memories Elmer Swanepoel