Red poppies out as SANDF opens Remembrance Month for soldiers who answered the call
The Defence Force has marked the start of November with a tribute to South African soldiers across generations, asking the public to wear the red poppy in their honour.
The South African National Defence Force has opened Remembrance Month, calling on South Africans to wear the red poppy in tribute to soldiers who served and died across generations.
In a message posted on X on Tuesday, the SANDF said the month honours “the courage, service and sacrifice of South African soldiers across generations.”
Wearing the poppy, the Defence Force said, is a way of paying tribute to those who “answered the call of duty, safeguarding our nation and its people.”
The message closed with the line long attached to remembrance ceremonies in South Africa and across the Commonwealth: “We will remember them.”
The post carried a photograph from the Defence Force but did not set out a programme of events for the month, name any unit or personnel, or give details of a specific ceremony.
Remembrance observances in South Africa are held through November, with the poppy worn in the weeks before Armistice Day on 11 November, the date that marked the end of the First World War in 1918. The SANDF’s message places South African soldiers within that tradition and within the country’s own record of service since.
