Regiment Westelike Provinsie

Regiment Westelike Provincie is an mechanised infantry regiment of the South African Army. As a reserve unit, it has a status roughly equivalent to that of a British Territorial Army or United States Army National Guard unit.

History

"Regiment Westelike Provincie" (RWP) (originally called "Regiment Westelike Provinsie"), was one of eight Afrikaner-oriented infantry units raised by the Union Defence Force on 1 April 1934, as part of a programme to rebuild the UDF after the Great Depression.. It was based in the country town of Stellenbosch, 45km outside Cape Town.

RWP did not serve as a unit in World War II, because of members' personal political opposition to South Africa's involvement in the war. Those members who were willing to serve were drafted to the South African Tank Corps instead. Despite the regiment's attitude towards the war, the wartime prime minister Gen Jan Smuts accepted appointment as honorary colonel shortly after being voted out of office in 1948.

In 1949, RWP itself was converted to armour, and it was renamed "Regiment Onze Jan", after 19th-century Afrikaner political leader Jan Hofmeyr, in 1951.

When the Army was reorganised for internal security duties in 1960, ROJ was converted back to infantry and was renamed Regiment Boland. R Bol later moved to Paarl and, after the introduction of national service (conscription), it formed a second battalion in Worcester on 1 September 1970.

The two battalions were separated in April 1974. 1 R Bol resumed the original title Regiment Westelike Provinsie and moved to Cape Town, while 2 R Bol remained in Worcester as Regiment Boland. The only remnant of their association is the similar cap-badges of the two Regiments.

In 1983, RWP adopted the Dutch spelling of "Provincie" because it regards itself as the successor to several short-lived volunteer units which existed in the Stellenbosch and Paarl districts in the 19th century (before Dutch was superseded by Afrikaans).

RWP served in Angola in 1976, and carried out several tours of duty in the Border War in South West Africa.

The Regiment received the Freedom of the area of jurisdiction of the Overstrand Municipality on 11 November 2006. This means that the unit can march on foot or mechanised armed with a band playing and colours flying through the streets of any of the Overstrand towns, namelys Hermanus, Rooiels, Pringle Bay, Betty's Bay, Kleinmond, Fisherhaven, Hawston, Onrus, Sandbaai, Stanford, Gansbaai, Pearly Beach and Baardskeerdersbos. As far as could be established this is a first in the new SA local government dispensation.

Regimental Symbols

*The badge is the cone of the silver-tree, framed in a circle of leaves, with the initials RWP on a scroll at the base. The R Bol badge has the motto "Vires" instead of the initials.
*The beret flash (originally a helmet flash) has horizontal stripes of red over white over black, with a blue diamond on the white stripe: blue and white are the traditional colours of the Western Cape.

Battle honours

None

References

*Crook, L. "71 Motorised Brigade" (1994)