10 April 2006
The first of South Africa's three new submarines arrived at Simon's Town naval dockyard on Friday after an 8 000 nautical mile trip from Germany via Norway with 30 crew on board.
The submarine - christened SAS Manthatisi after the 19th century warrior queen of the Batlokwa people - the first of three ordered from Germany as a part of South Africa's multi-billion rand military upgrade and will replace the country's aged Daphne class submarines.
The newly built class 209 submarine, deceptively small when seen on the surface, is 62 metres from keel to fin. Since 2003, when the last of the Daphne class submarines was taken out of service, South Africa has not had a submarine capability.
Defence Minister Mosiua Lekota, at the dockyard to welcome the submarine after its 49-day journey from Europe, said that with between 90 and 100 tankers rounding the Cape every month, carrying five millions of tons of oil, it was important that South Africa had the capability to protect its waters.
Apart from four ultra-modern frigates that had arrived in South Africa as part of the upgrade, the Air Force had received seven of 30 Agusta A109 Light Utility Helicopters that had been ordered and would "be receiving the other acquisitions during the course of this year and the coming years," Lekota said.
These acquistions put the South African Navy in "the 'blue water' category," wrote Jonathan Katzenellenbogen in Business Day, "allowing for sustained operations well beyond our shores."
SouthAfrica.info reporter and BuaNews
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