Identity
Person No.
33738
Old ROH no.
1604
Service No.
74447913BA
Last Name
First Name
Johannes Hercules
Initials
J H
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
19
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
SHOT 546
Shot
Cause of Death
Died in Shooting Incident, busy cleaning his rifle when he accidentally shot himself, near Kwando
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Sapper
Regiment
Corps
Unit
Unknown
Defence Force
SADF 3,839
South African Defence Force
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Coordinates
Unit History
Role at time of death
Field Engineers
Status
Permanent Force (Regular)
Part of
Formed 1973 from 17 Field Squadron (relocated from Potchefstroom to Bethlehem, 1967); listed as the primary deployment unit of the SA Army Engineer Formation's regular units.
Notes
Son of Mr. J. J. Viljoen, of Devondale.
Research notes
4 Sep 2026: Unit leftover "2 Field Engineer Regiment" (a named regiment, not a sub-unit) moved to Regiment. Corps unchanged.
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), pages 125-128 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
Stories 1
Sapper Hakies Viljoen, as he was known, was a member of 2 Field Engineer Regiment and did his basic training in Bethlehem in the Free State as part of the January 1977 intake. He died in a shooting accident in Kwando in Namibia, less than three weeks after reporting for border duty in Oct / Nov 1977. He was initially stationed at Katima Mulilo and when told that he was to be relocated to Kwando, he verbally indicated that he did not want to go and would prefer staying in Katima. Those in charge would not adhere to his request and he was sent to Kwando. Approximately 13 days later, he was no more. God bless his soul.
Dedications
No dedications have been added yet.