Special Forces recruitment happening this month

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While no-one is saying South Africa’s Special Forces aren’t tough, the choice of October as recruitment month for the exclusive troops of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) could point to them not taking much notice of COVID-19.

South Africa is now at level one of the national state of disaster with by far the majority of daily taskings across the various services and divisions back to ops normal. One exception defenceWeb is aware of will in all probability affect next year’s planned January intake of military skills development (MSD) volunteers.

Not so for Special Forces with the specialist division scheduling recruitment events around the country, starting this week and running through the rest of the month for those who think they can make the grade.

“Do you have what it takes?” asks a SA Special Forces recruitment poster, which outlines basic requirements for “land, seaborne and airborne training” in the quest of “advanced skills and much more”.

The list of requirements starts with an obvious essential – applicants have to be South African citizens. This is followed by education (Grade 12) and age (18 to 23) with a medical classification of G1K1G and no criminal record. Additionally, applicants must have completed a year of military service and/or be “active” in the Reserve Force including basic, subject and corps training or have done at least a year the two-year military skills development programme.

No further information is supplied, apart from dates and sites where the recruitment process will start. In Gauteng this is from 12 October (MP School) with recruitment also at the Signal School (13 October), Air Force Gym (14 October) and Heidelberg (15 October). Recruitment in Ermelo will be on 19 October and Hoedspruit from 21 October. In Western Cape, recruitment will be at the Maritime Reaction Squadron (5 October), ASB WC (6 October) and Infantry School (8 October). In Free State, this will be at 44/1 Parachute Regiments (6 October), the School of Armour (6 October) and 1 SAI Battalion (6 October) while in Eastern Cape, recruitment will be on 8 October at Bulembu. Other recruitment sites are Potchefstroom’s School of Intelligence and Artillery (5 and 6 October) and Kimberley (3 SAI Battalion between 7 and 9 October).

The SANDF notes that recruitment testing and interviews are one part of pre-screening and that once results are collected, only the best 350 candidates will be invited to attend special forces individual phase selection.