The Beeld said Sholto Hedenskog, 27, a Royal Marine who was born in Pretoria, was one of the 12 soldiers who were killed on Friday morning in a helicopter crash in Kuwait.
A US Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter came down during deployment operations to the Fao peninsula in southern Iraq. The crash was believed to be due to a mechanical fault.
Hedenskog's uncle, Bruce Hedenskog, told the Beeld although his nephew joined the British army in 2000, he was still a South African citizen.
He said that it had been Hedenskog's dream to be a soldier since he was 14-years-old. Hedenskog studied at Rhodes University in Grahamstown where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree.
Hedenskog's family was reportedly informed of his death by the British High Commission in Pretoria.
The Press Association reported that Hedenskog would have been the best man at the July wedding of Craig Garnett, 23.
Claire Morley, Garnett's bride-to-be, paid tribute to "Sonic" Hedenskog, her partner's best friend.
"From what I heard and knew of him he was just a lovely guy and that's what makes it so sad," she told the news agency.
Garnett, 23, and Hedenskog had been best friends for the past three years. Both men were deployed to the Gulf on HMS Ark Royal.
Laying a bouquet at the gates of Stonehouse barracks in Britain on Sunday, she said: "I am doing it on behalf of Sonic because his family are out in South Africa. Seeing as I knew him and he was my partner's best friend I wanted to let him know we are thinking about him." - Sapa
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