DOGTAG MEMORIES, the misadventures of an SADF Conscript

240pp., paperback, Zebra Press, Cape Town, 2026

ISBN: 9781776392704

An honest, darkly humorous memoir of Jon Goetzscche's time as a conscript in the South African Defence Force during the Border War. 

Drafted into the SADF in 1977 as a seventeen-year-old, Jon Goetzsche struggled against authority, misfortune and the absurdities of war. After training to become a parabat, he was court-martialled for assaulting a fellow soldier and sent to Detention Barracks. Reassigned to an ordinary infantry battalion, he completed basic training and was sent to the border between South West Africa (now Namibia) and Angola for the rest of his two years’ national service, followed by several camps, where he became a platoon sergeant.

Jon Goetzscche was born in 1959 in Harare, Zimbabwe. He spent most of his life in Johannesburg and now lives in Cape Town. After a career in the financial world, he now works as a diving staff instructor. Dogtag Memories is his first book.