1971: IN REMEMBRANCE OF FALLEN POLICEMEN IN SOUTH WEST AFRICA: CONSTABLE JJ HENNING AND CONSTABLE WP DOBBIN
Deon van Niekerk
In June 2024, while photographing graves in the Greytown cemetery for the EGGSA Graves Project, I was asked about the resting place of young Constable Percy Dobbin—believed to be the first South African policeman to die in South West Africa. His story, and that of his colleague, deserves solemn remembrance.
Let us honour the memory of the two policemen who lost their lives that day in a tragic landmine explosion. It marked the beginning of a new and devastating phase of conflict, as SWAPO introduced the use of landmines as a weapon of war. At that time, there were no mine-resistant vehicles like the later Casspir; patrols were conducted in vulnerable Ford F100 bakkies.
Constables Henning and Dobbin were seated on the rear of such a vehicle, as shown in the accompanying photograph. Constable Henning hailed from Bloemfontein and is buried there; Constable Dobbin lies in Greytown, Natal. Their deaths foreshadowed a heavy toll: over the next ten months, several policemen from Natal would pay the ultimate price in the Caprivi.
Five months later, in October 1971, Captain Bonnie van Eeden from Pinetown was killed in a landmine explosion. Another five months on, Sgt. Riekert of the Durban Dog Unit met the same fate in circumstances eerily like those of Constable Dobbin.
Grave of Const JJ Henning
Grave of Const WP Dobbin
Their names at the SA Police Memorial in Pretoria:
The scene of the explosion
Their SA Police vehicle
Newspaper report 1
Newspaper report 1
Memorial in Greytown near Town Hall.
A note by Richard Dobbin
Wikipedia
Under the heading: Expansion of the war effort and mine warfare – we quote the following:
“On 2 May 1971, a police van struck a mine, a TM-46, in the Caprivi Strip. The resulting explosion blew a crater in the road of about two metres in diameter and sent the vehicle airborne, killing two police officers and injuring nine others. This was the first mine-related incident recorded on South West African soil.
In October 1971, another police vehicle detonated a mine outside Katima Mulilo, wounding four constables. The following day, a fifth constable was mortally injured when he stepped on a second mine laid directly alongside the first. This reflected a new PLAN tactic of laying anti-personnel mines parallel to their anti-tank mines to kill policemen or soldiers either engaging in preliminary mine detection or inspecting the scene of a previous blast. In 1972, South Africa acknowledged that two more policemen had died and another three had been injured as a result of mines.
End
These men served with courage and paid with their lives. May their sacrifice never be forgotten.
Sources:
- Sources: Eggsa graves, SA Graves Project.
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Border_War accessed 11 AUg 2025.