SAMVOZA Veteran Mark Holder recounted his experiences from 1979
PUTSONDERWATER
"I was called up to 8 SAI in Upington in the Winter of 1979. I was born and bred in Johannesburg and did not even know where Upington was.
The first shock came when the newspapers were full of Our "Ou Manne" who were in for one year and after being told that their call up was now two years. The Whole Camp went on AWOL. The newspapers at the time were full of it.
The second shock was on the train to Upington and going past a Station called "PutSonderWater"
Image from footage of Chris Corbet's video
Where on earth is this place?
Here is a Short Video by Chris Corbet https://youtu.be/3-M2eTuWVJw. This is one of the roads to 8 SAI Upington.
The Camp at Upington was also something else. Sand everywhere, soft sand and Tents, No Bricks. The HQ, one ablution block and a wash room of sorts were actual brick and mortar, the rest was SAND and TENTS.
The temperatures reach well into the minuses in winter and the days are so hot that they could not do a January intake.
And we were in the red Kalahari sand and tents. En almal praat net Afrikaans.
What a wake up call for a Jo'burger.
We were so far from everything that we only got a long weekend pass every 8 weeks after Basics. From Friday afternoon to Monday Midnight.
I was not a model soldier and battled to do 5 pushups when we started, and the first time some oke with two funny stripes on his arm said to me "sak vir tien" (I think they understood our limitation in the beginning) I look at him and said "What" His face was something to remember. He screamed back at me something like "Val vorentoe en gee my tien" I asked". "Tien what". "Push Ups jou dom donner" was the reply.
So I bent forward on my knees and sort of got into position for the pushups and once again he screamed "staan op", dink jy dis 'n vakansie oord?" Jy val vorentoe jou ****.
I'm not going to bore you with the Intake, the "Af K*K" and all the other wonderful things during the unending weeks of basics, we all went through it.
I do not want to make as if our Military Service was not Serious and Vital at the time. But there were many good memorable and Funny Situations that only a bunch of men together can get into.
My heart , feelings and extreme gratitude goes out to ALL those that Served. And to all the families who lost their children and to the Soldiers that were injured.
One of the most memorable things that happened to me was on a weekend pass. Standing on the outskirts of Upington waiting for a lift. A farmer stopped and took me a number of kilometers on the the Jo'burg road and dropped me at the entrance to his farm.
His thinking was that only one on the road would get a lift quicker. It was one of those days and no lifts available. Night fell and then it is very difficult to get a lift in those vast open spaces. With nowhere to go I lay on the side of the road and fell asleep. A truck came hurtling past and just missed me lying on the side of the road. That woke me up.
Must have been a half hour later and the farmer arrived to see if I had gotten a lift. He told me to jump in and he took me to his farm. He said there will not be any other lifts through so I must come a sleep at their farm.
What a wonderful night's rest.
5am I was woken up, in the shower and then for breakfast.
Coming from Jo'burg we grew up on Pro-nutro and Weetbix, and here was a spread like I have never seen before. Fruit, pap, boerewors, bacon, eggs, homemade bread and toast. Fresh milk and Juice WOW, and at five o'clock in the morning.
When I had finished eating he took me back to the main road so I could continue hitch hiking back to Jo'burg. What a phenomenal family. Forever in my memory.
One of the lifts I got was in the back of a truck that had tar in it. But a lift is a lift so you take it. Tar and "Step Outs" don't go together. I spent most of the weekend trying to remove the tar.
Another lift was on the back of a flatbed truck and I had to lie holding the rails on the front at the cab or risk falling off. It was so cold when we got to Jo'burg I could hardly stand my feet were frozen. Sort of half jumped / fell off the truck.
Then basics were over and the cricket season started. Our first match against the town side and we went to prepare the pitch for the game. I decided that while we were out of camp I would take the Bedford into town and buy us hamburgers.
Trying to Reverse park a Bedford is Not that easy. Especially when there is a Ford Bakkie in the front parking space. Needless to say I dented the Bakkie quite badly and for my trouble, NO hamburgers and 14 days CB.
Not so much fun being the only one in the camp with a Red 'Staal Dak", full kit and first full "Uit Pak" inspection at 5am. Then a full day in Full Kit at double time. A one hour "Chasie" every afternoon when everyone else was finished for the day and your last inspection at 10 pm.
Just as my CB finished we had a weekend pass.
Coming back from pass to Upington was problematic and 14 of us got stuck in Olifantshoek, (185 kms from Upington). Late from pass, 7 days CB!!!!!! I have never been so fit in my life. My average 2,4 time was over 10 minutes. After my CB month I ran a 2,4 in just over 6 minutes.
We were having another "Af K*K" session and just for fun, being chased around the Magasyn time and time again. Must have been the fourth or so time and I stopped the guys and said let's do this together: we run in our time in a squad singing We Feel, We Feel F**K all, and stamping our feet in tune to the Queen Song This obviously never went well with the striped and piped people and got us and extra "AF K*K" PT session. But well worth the look of complete disbelief and confusion on their faces.
And the last one while still in base. We had a braai one evening and our corporal went to bed early. Once everyone was finished, we took the left over braai sauce in a large steel pan and went to our corporals window and I was going to throw it over him but I could not get the angle right. I unfortunately cannot remember the name of the guy that was with me (I have a bit of a memory lapse from my injuries) but he took the pan and threw the whole thing through the window onto his bed.
We were back in our beds in minutes . Nobody ever said a word and we were not caught."
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