Buildings used exclusively by the fleet’s submarine corps will be renamed in a final and lasting tribute to the three mariners who lost their lives a year ago.
SAS Assegaai, formerly known as SAS Johanna van der Merwe, is the last remaining of the three French-built submarines that were operated by the South African Navy from the 1970s into the 1990s.
The lack of transparency and communication about the exercise’s nature and necessity has disappointed residents, who are worried about the possible harm to endangered marine wildlife.
IOL has reported that the navy is trying to “conceal a training exercise that went wrong”. The veracity of the report has now been called into question.