Durban - Nearly 100 KwaZulu-Natal members of the SANDF are expected to receive medals for 30 and 40 years of service respectively at Air Force Base Durban on Friday.
The recipients of the medals say they were inspired to join the SANDF.
Some members will receive their medals posthumously.
Eighty-two SANDF members will receive the 30-year Good Service Medal and seven the 40-year Good Service Medal.
The service men and women were thrilled to be recognised for their service to South Africa.
Master Warrant Officer Butana Fakude, 50, from Soshanguve in Pretoria will receive a medal in KZN because he is based in the province.
Fakude said it was his 31st year in the force.
“I joined the force because I wanted to protect the South African economy, the country and its people,” said the father of two.
Warrant Officer Asogan Perumal, 55, has been in the force for 37 years and was receiving his 30-year service medal.
“It was issued late, seven years late,” Perumal chuckled.
The Durban-born serviceman said he had the whole package - a wife, children and grandchildren.
“I joined the force because I was inspired by a friend of mine in about 1981. He had explained the challenges they went through and the skills they gained,” he said.
He was three years away from 40 years of service and hoped he would reach that milestone.
Perumal was in the navy and was recently transferred to the army in KZN.
Major Curara Mazwembe would be collecting a medal for her late mentor, Lance-Corporal Mongezi Mondo, who died in 2017 from an illness.
Mazwembe said Mondo joined the force in 1989.
He was an ex-APLA force member from Mdantsane.
“He was like an older brother and my mentor.
"He recruited me and he had told me he joined because he wanted liberation, equality and transformation,” she said.
He is survived by his wife and two children.