Chief of The Air Force
The Chief of the South African Air Force is the professional head of the Air Force. The post was called 'Director of Air Services' 1920-33, 'Director of Air & Technical Services' 1937-39, 'Director-General of Air Services' 1939-41, 'Director-General of the Air Force' 1941-51, and 'Air Chief of Staff' 1951-66, and has been 'Chief of the Air Force' since 1966.
| Col Sir Pierre van Ryneveld KBE DSO MC | 1 February 1920 | 30 September 1937 |
| Col Frederick Hoare CBE | 1 October 1937 | 31 October 1937 |
| Lt Col Hector Daniel MC AFC | 1 November 1937 | 12 September 1939 |
| Col John Holthouse OBE | 13 September 1939 | 30 September 1940 |
| Maj Gen Christoffel Venter CB DFC | 1 October 1940 | 16 October 1945 |
| Brig Harold Willmott CBE | 17 October 1945 | 10 September 1946 |
| Brig James 'Jimmy' Durrant CB DFC | 1 October 1946 | 30 June 1951 |
| Brig Harold Willmott CBE | 1 July 1951 | 24 August 1954 |
| Brig Stephen Melville OBE | 25 August 1954 | 22 September 1956 |
| Maj Gen Barend Viljoen SSA OBE | 23 September 1956 | 30 April 1965 |
| Lt Gen Henry "Kalfie" Martin SM CBE DFC | 1 May 1965 | 30 November 1967 |
| Lt Gen Jacobus Verster SSA SM | 1 December 1967 | 28 February 1975 |
| Lt Gen Robert 'Bob' Rogers SSA SM DSO DFC | 1 March 1975 | 30 November 1979 |
| Lt Gen Michal Muller SSAS SD | 1 December 1979 | 29 February 1984 |
| Lt Gen Denis Earp SSA SD SM | 1 March 1984 | 30 June 1988 |
| Lt Gen Jan van Loggerenberg SSAS SD SOE | 1 July 1988 | 31 October 1991 |
| Lt Gen James Kriel SSAS SD SM MMM | 1 November 1991 | 30 April 1996 |
| Lt Gen Willem Hechter SSAS | 1 May 1996 | 29 February 2000 |
| Lt Gen Roelf Beukes SD SM MMM | 1 March 2000 | 28 February 2005 |
| Lt Gen Carlo Gagiano SM MMM | 1 March 2005 | 30 September 2012 |
| Lt Gen Fabian Msimang | 1 October 2012 | present |
Read more about this topic: List Of South African Military Chiefs
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“The chief element in the art of statesmanship under modern conditions is the ability to elucidate the confused and clamorous interests which converge upon the seat of government. It is an ability to penetrate from the naïve self-interest of each group to its permanent and real interest.... Statesmanship ... consists in giving the people not what they want but what they will learn to want.”
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“Man always made, and still makes, grotesque blunders in selecting and measuring forces, taken at random from the heap, but he never made a mistake in the value he set on the whole, which he symbolized as unity and worshipped as God. To this day, his attitude towards it has never changed, though science can no longer give to force a name.”
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