THE NEW SANDF RANK INSIGNIA

The SANDF has missed a critical opportunity to enhancing a unified corporate identity with the introduction of their new rank insignia. Cultural and organisational symbols reflect and create corporate identity. Military uniforms are important symbols in expressing affiliation and loyalty. Rank insignia are important indicators of further sub-group identity. The SANDF was formed out of the integration of various armed forces in 1994. The newly formed SANDF recognised the need for new symbols to reflect their new identity—a break with the past—and to enhance their unified identity. New rank insignia were introduced in 2002, with different symbols for the different services. The author argues that this will create greater service-bound identity, and encourage less unity in the corporate identity of the SANDF.