Willem Steenkamp

Awards

• Cited in 1967 and 1968 in United Press International's annual selection of its best news feature articles worldwide.
• Awarded the Settlers' Prize for Enterprising Journalism in 1982.
• Awarded the Maskew Miller Prize in 1983 for the Anglo-Boer War novel "The Blockhouse".
• Awarded the Lady Usher Memorial Prize in 1985 for the historical novel "The Horse Thief".
• Awarded the Barcom Prize for Professional Military Writing in 1988 for an essay on future amphibious assault personnel requirements.

  Appointments

• Justice of the peace.
• UN international election observer.
• Member of the Ceremonial Staff Board up to 2004.
• Member of the VOC Foundation.

  Military Service

List of postings and tasks

• 1958: Called up for Active Citizen Force service: Study deferment.
• 19611965: Routine non-continuous regimental service.
• 19661969: On inactive reserve.
• 19691979: Regimental service.
• 19801983: Seconded to 71 Motorised Brigade staff.
• 19841990: Regimental service.
• 19901992: Seconded to 75 Motorised Brigade/9 SA Division staff.
• 1993to date: Regimental service, in various capacities: inter alia officer in charge of designing and implementing the wreath-laying at Woltemade Cemetery by HM Queen Elizabeth II, 1995.
• Extra-regimental/staff employment:
• * Secondments to 71 Motorised Brigade and 75 Motorised Brigade/9 SA Division, as noted.
• * Observer on three external operations, 19791985.
• * Minute-taker/diarist: Operation Sclera.
• * Member/scriba of official SADF delegation sent to attend national convention of United States Reserve Officers' Association at Nashville, Tennessee, July 1993; also visited ROA head office in Washington DC for confidential briefing to convey to SA Minister of Defence
• 19971998: Member of the SA National Defence Force's Education, Training and Development Team revising Reserve Force training

  Military Awards

• Chief of the Army's Commendation

• Published Books

• Ngami!. Fictionalised re-telling in Afrikaans, for mid-teenagers, of explorer Charles John Andersson's epic mid-19th-Century trek from Walvis Bay to Lake Ngami.
• Land of the Thirst King. Historical/contemporary travel book about Namaqualand.
• Adeus Angola. First account of the initial South African military incursion into Angola.
• The Soldiers. Short interlinked biographies of Generals Christiaan de Wet, Koos de la Rey, Sir Henry Timson Lukin, Sir Jaap van Deventer, Dan Pienaar and Evered Poole
• Poor Man's Bioscope. Historical/contemporary travel book about Cape Town
• Moedverloor. Historical novel, in Afrikaans, about Great Namaqualand in the 19th Century
• Sê vir Leonardo. Contemporary action novel, in Afrikaans, set in Cape Town
• Aircraft of the South African Air Force. Illustrated survey of contemporary SAAF aircraft; later reprinted as Jane's Book of the SAAF
• Borderstrike!. First detailed account of early South African military incursions into Angola, 1978–1980. Expanded/re-edited edition 2003
• Namakwalandse Oustories. Re-telling, in Afrikaans, of traditional Namaqualand folk-tales
• Christmas Story/Kersverhaal. Re-telling of the Nativity, in separate English and Afrikaans versions, from the viewpoint of the animals in the stable
• The Horse Thief. Historical novel set in Namaqualand in the 1870s
• Blake's Woman. Historical novel set in 19th-Century Great Namaqualand
• The Blockhouse. Historical novel set at the end of the Second Anglo-Boer War
• South Africa's Border War, 1966–1989. Illustrated history of the SWA/Namibian border war ; due for facsimile reprint in 2014
• Jim Zulu. Historical novel set in the Kimberley diamond diggings area of the 1880s, inspired by South Africa's only known case of public lynching
• Assegais, Drums and Dragoons. The early military and social history of the Cape of Good Hope, 1510–1806
• The Black Beret: the history of the SA Armoured Corps, Volume 1
• SA's Border War 1966-1989
• SA se Grensoorlog 1966-1989
• Mobility Conquers: The Story Of 61 Mechanised Battalion Group 1978–2005, with Helmoed-Römer Heitman