[1] The Woltemade Decoration for Bravery, Silver was instituted by the Republic of South Africa in 1970, by Warrant of 20 May 1970, published in Government Gazette no.

[1][2] It is the lesser of two classes of South Africa's highest civilian decoration for bravery and it replaced and ranked on par with the King's and Queen's Medals for Bravery, Silver, the award of which was discontinued upon the establishment of the Republic of South Africa on 31 May 1961.

[3] The decoration was named in memory of Wolraad Woltemade, an elderly servant of the Dutch East India Company, who gave his life while rescuing shipwrecked sailors in Table Bay on 1 June 1773.

The ship De Jonge Thomas broke anchor in a gale force Northwestern and was driven ashore in the Salt River Mouth.

[2] The position of the Woltemade Decoration for Bravery, Silver in the official national order of precedence was revised three times after 1990 to accommodate the inclusion or institution of new decorations and medals, first with the integration process of 1994, again when decorations and medals were belatedly instituted in April 1996 for the two former non-statutory para-military forces, the Azanian People's Liberation Army and Umkhonto we Sizwe, and again with the institution of new sets of awards in 2002 and 2003, but it remained unchanged on all three occasions.