It was supposed to end in celebration, a submarine voyage to culminate in a Heritage Day festival in Table Bay.
Instead, South Africa witnessed a freak military tragedy after a week of freakish weather.
Three submariners died during a military exercise on Wednesday afternoon and one was critically injured after a huge wave crashed into the SAS Manthatisi during a military exercise while heading to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.
They were swept out to sea while on the deck of the Heroine-class submarine, which was sailing on the surface to rendezvous with an air force helicopter off Kommetjie for a vertical transfer exercise — when vessels at sea receive supplies by helicopter.
The names of the submariners who died are:
- Lt-Commander Gillian Elizabeth Hector (executive officer);
- Master W/O William Masela Mathipa (coxswain); and
- W/O Class One Mmokwapa Lucas Mojela (coxswain under training).
President Cyril Ramaphosa described the incident as “a sad loss for our nation and our brave armed forces who routinely face danger so all of us can be safe and secure”.
Some military experts have defended the SA Navy amid a flurry of questions about the ill-fated heritage voyage in rough seas — shortly after a storm surge battered the SA coastline.
South Africa’s submarine programme is considered among the best in the world, experts say, even if our military hardware — and budget — lags behind. Training accidents are a military occupational hazard and have happened before.
“I was washed off the deck of a strike craft,” said Rear Admiral Arne Söderlund, South Africa’s former military attaché to Britain. “I was saved by my safety line. Somebody saw me and grabbed me by my belt. It happens to all of us. We all have experiences.”
The ocean was the toughest and least predictable terrain for military service, Söderlund added.
“A fire at sea, or a storm — there is nothing quite like it,” he said.
Söderlund scoffed at “armchair” suggestions that SA submariners lacked training. “If even one of them is not properly trained, you won’t go to sea. They are good.”
He said it was possible the submariners had been caught unawares while watching an approaching helicopter participating in the naval exercise.
Military commentator Helmoed-Römer Heitman said accidents were a fact of life, and particularly of military life: “It falls under the US Army phrase ‘sh*t happens’. The navy has to train under difficult circumstances and sometimes things go wrong. I happened to the old SAN and other navies.
There’s nothing wrong with the training and drills, but the sea has a nasty habit of being unpredictable. There is a lack of experience, which makes training all the more important. But experience also cannot save you when things go wrong.
— Military commentator
Helmoed-Römer Heitman
“There’s nothing wrong with the training and drills, but the sea has a nasty habit of being unpredictable. There is a lack of experience, which makes training all the more important. But experience also cannot save you when things go wrong,” Heitman said.
The SAS Mantathisi was scheduled to feature in a mini naval festival open to the public this weekend.
In a previous interview on Good Hope FM, Malouw said: “I grew up with the love for the sea. My grandmother’s father was a fisherman and she used to speak about how he would go out to sea and be away for a long time.
“Generally my association with the sea has been with me from the beginning and when I joined the Sea Cadets we had all these things we were exposed to and mostly exposed to the navy environment. That’s when I thought ‘this is probably what I will be doing the rest of my life’.”
Flag officer fleet, Rear Admiral Musawenkosi Nkomonde, was scheduled to conduct a readiness inspection of the submarine and other participating vessels on Friday. However, the submarine was seen limping back into Simon’s Town naval base late on Thursday. It is unclear whether it will still participate in the Heritage Day event.
The department of defence said there would be an inquiry into circumstances leading up to the tragedy.
An eyewitness from Kommetjie saw the drama unfold from outside his house.
“We were fixing surfboards and then we saw a submarine arrive. We thought, oh, that’s unusual because it was just sitting there. Then we saw a helicopter arrive and it looked so intense what they were doing. The downdraft from the rotors was just crazy, spray flying, and the waves were big,” he said, adding that he could understand why people might have been washed overboard.
— Additional reporting by Kim Swartz.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.