1. Magnus Malan started his high school education at the Afrikaanse Hoer Seunskool but later moved to Dr Danie Craven's Physical Education Brigade in Kimberley, where he completed his matriculation.
16 Facts About Magnus Malan
1. 2.
Magnus Malan wanted to join the South African armed forces immediately after his matriculation, but his father advised him first to complete his university studies.
3.
In 1962, Magnus Malan married Magrietha Johanna van der Walt; the couple had two sons and one daughter.
4.
Magnus Malan was commissioned in the Navy and served in the Marines based on Robben Island.
5.
Magnus Malan was earmarked for high office from early on in his military career; one of the many courses he attended was the Regular Command and General Staff Officers Course at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in the United States of America from 1962 to 1963.
6.
In 1967, at age 36, while stationed in Windhoek and holding the rank of colonel, Magnus Malan joined the secretive Broederbond organization.
7.
Magnus Malan went on to serve as commanding officer of various formations, including Western Province Command, South West Africa Command, and the South African Military Academy.
8.
In 1973, Magnus Malan was appointed as Chief of the South African Army and three years later as Chief of the South African Defence Force.
9.
Magnus Malan was elected to be a member of the Executive Council of the National Party.
10.
On 2 November 1995, Magnus Malan was charged together with 19 other former senior military officers for murdering 13 people in the KwaMakhutha massacre in 1987.
11.
Nonetheless in South Africa, the Magnus Malan trial has come to be seen by some as a failure of the legal process.
12.
Magnus Malan had to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
13.
Magnus Malan died at his home in Pretoria on 18 July 2011.
14.
Magnus Malan was survived by his wife, 3 children and 9 grandchildren.
15.
The book, The Lost Boys of Bird Island contains testimony that Magnus Malan used his position as Defence Minister to kidnap and ferry young Coloured boys to an island off the coast of South Africa by helicopter, under the pretext of going on a fishing trip.
16.
The allegations were met with scepticism and rejected by those who were intimately acquainted with Magnus Malan, including his surviving family.