SANDF tragedy: We salute the sailors and soldiers we lost

Signing up to serve your country in any arm of the military means acknowledging that you’ll often be in harm’s way.

Putting on your uniform means putting your life on the line.

And while soldiers, airmen and sailors may die defending their motherland, it is doubly tragic if they die in peacetime accidents.

This week, seven of our serving SA National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel died accidentally. Three submariners from the SAS Manthatisi drowned after being washed overboard by a wave during an exercise off the Cape coast.

READ: Monster waves and an air ambulance: Inside the daring rescue to save 7 mariners swept out to sea

Then four soldiers from the SA Army were killed when their troop carrier rolled after a tyre burst on another vehicle it was towing.

In both cases, boards of inquiry will be convened by the military authorities to determine whether standard operating procedures (which are rigidly prescribed in the military) were followed before the incidents happened.

Casualties are often unavoidable in scenarios where military personnel are taking part in exercises in circumstances which closely resemble actual situations, even though precautions are taken in training.

Whatever the outcome of those investigations, we offer our condolences to the families and their colleagues in both the SA Navy and SA Army. Our country thanks those we lost for their service.