Defence Force Commendation Medal
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Defence Force Commendation Medal was instituted by the State President of the Republic of Bophuthatswana in 1982. It could be awarded to all ranks for service of a high standard.
The Bophuthatswana Defence Force
The Bophuthatswana Defence Force (BDF) was established upon that country's independence on 6 December 1977. The Republic of Bophuthatswana ceased to exist on 27 April 1994 and the Bophuthatswana Defence Force was amalgamated with six other military forces into the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
Institution
The Defence Force Commendation Medal was instituted by the State President of Bophuthatswana in 1982. It is the junior award of a set of three decorations for merit, along with the Defence Force Merit Decoration and the Defence Force Merit Medal.
Bophuthatswana's military decorations and medals were modelled on those of the Republic of South Africa and these three decorations are the approximate equivalents of, respectively, the Southern Cross Decoration and Pro Merito Decoration, the Southern Cross Medal (1975) and Pro Merito Medal (1975), and the Military Merit Medal.
Award criteria
The medal could be awarded to all ranks for service of a high standard.
Order of wear
Since the Defence Force Commendation Medal was authorised for wear by one of the statutory forces which came to be part of the South African National Defence Force on 27 April 1994, it was accorded a position in the official South African order of precedence on that date.
Bophuthatswana Defence Force until 26 April 1994
Official BDF order of precedence:
Preceded by the Marumo Medal, Class I.
Succeeded by the Marumo Medal, Class II.
Bophuthatswana official national order of precedence:
Preceded by the Medal of the Order of the Leopard.
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This entry incorporates text from “Defence Force Commendation Medal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.