The History of the Buffel Introduction The history of this vehicle starts off on 11 February 1970 when the SADF realized that the insurgency war in South West Africa would take on similar characteristics that the war being conducted in Rhodesia. One of the main elements of this was war the use of landmines as a terror weapon. On this day the Chief of the SADF issued an order for the development of a mine protected personnel carrier for motorised infantry units.
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During the 1960's the SADF had bought a couple of Unimog S models for its own use. During 1973/4 Armscor managed to supply a further 200 Unimog's to the SADF. Some of these vehicles were modified to the Bosvark (Pushpig) variant by fitting armoured deflector plates to the chassis and a v-shaped hull for the crew. This was supposedly to deflect any landmine blast away from the driver and crew. Some 56 of these vehicles were modified and used during Operation Savannah during 1975. This vehicle had one major short coming, it did not provide any protection to the crew against small arms fire. An unspecified number were modified into ambulances for the SA Medical Corps.
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It was decided to develop a suitable vehicle which would protect the crew and personnel against the landmine scourge. At this stage the standard personnel carrier of the SADF was the Bedford 4X4 truck. It was a very good vehicle designed for open tarred roads with limited cross country ability. It was also quite a big vehicle and could carry about twenty men and their kit. The UN arms embargo was in full swing which prohibited the SADF from importing a purpose designed armed personnel carrier. The SADF was therefore reliant on its own development of a suitable vehicle. During the period 1972 to 1979 a total of 14 concept vehicles were developed of which the Buffel APC and Casspir were the only two which were viable according to need. As a result of the South African Police and their involvement in Rhodesia both the SAP and SADF started to develop MPV's. Although the treat was the same for both organisations each followed its own direction with no coordination or cooperation between the services. The SAP decided on the Ford F250 as the supplier of basic components for the development of their vehicles. Thus we find vehicles unique to the SAP like the Ribbok. The Casspir was developed jointly by the SAP and CSIR and was to only to arrive later. At this stage the CSIR was developing mine protected vehicles such as the Hippo and Hyena. The Hippo being based on the above mentioned Bedford 4X4 truck components and the Ribbok and Hyena made use of Ford F250 components. The SADF's need was for a smaller type of vehicle that could transport an infantry section. The Unimog was an excellent candidate in this respect as it could be supplied by Mercedes Benz in South Africa.
One of the original Unimog light trucks purchased for the SADF and in use in 1975.
The modified Unimog called a Bosvark (Bushpig) with v-type hull.