Publication: African Crisis
Issued: Date: 2007-11-15
Reporter:
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How Affirmative
Action nearly sank a brand New S.African Submarine bought from Germany...
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There was a rumour mentioned in the media a time back that one of our new
German-made submarines nearly sank on its way to S.Africa. I have managed to get
some first-hand information about what happened.
Today I put up this story:
S.African Navy
staff jump ship in droves - crippling shortages of Technical Staff
We did run a story some time back showing that the Govt originally lied about
buying "Corvettes" which are smaller ships than Frigates.
The new Navy Ships are actually Frigates:
In August 2005:
S.African Defense Force falling apart at the seams...
As you know we've bought a number of really first-class Navy ships and
submarines from Germany. I've spoken to people who've been inside them and
apparently they're fabulous machines.
There were rumours in the media when the submarines were launched that there
were problems with the crews - which were mostly black. In May 2005, I published
this story, and I am pulling out some comments by the Deputy Minister of Defence
at that time :
- [Deputy Minister of Defence Mluleki] George also used the opportunity
to set the record straight and discount speculations from some quarters with
regard to the ability of the personnel of the South African Navy to operate
the vessels.
- "Uninformed and premature comments with regard to the method that will
be used to deliver the submarines to our country were unfortunate. The
ministry of defence encourages everyone who require information to approach
relevant officials in the department, in order to prevent sowing doubts and
confusion in the public mind.
- "I will take this opportunity to make it clear that all the submarines
will be making their delivery voyages under own power, with South African
Navy personnel on board, and under escort by one of the South African Navy
surface vessels."
That quote comes from:
New S.African
submarine launched in Germany
Recently, a friend of mine confirmed what exactly had happened and was hinted at
in the Mass Media back then and which the Govt suppressed. There was a rumour
that the blacks from S.Africa were untrainable and that there were problems with
the black crews, especially on the submarines.
Someone I know who spoke to one of the German trainers said that he had really
battled with the blacks from S.Africa. He said that Germany has sold these
submarines to India, Indonesia and many countries across the world. He said that
of all the nations he had trained, the Indonesians were the worst - until he had
to train the black S.Africans. He said that he's no racist, but eventually he
concluded that these people were untrainable.
I have been told that most of the ship's captain's and the submarine commanders
are still white.
I was told that when the submarine left Germany to sail to S.Africa at one point
it was crossing the Bay of Biscay. The submarine was snorkeling, which means
that it was running on its diesel engines. They need air, so they draw air from
the snorkel, so the submarine must sail near the surface. While the new
S.African submarine was crossing the Bay it suddenly sucked water in through the
snorkel because the Affirmative Action crew made it go deeper than it could with
the snorkel still up. The whole submarine blacked out and then began sinking.
Had the white Captain not stepped in, the submarine would have sunk. He managed
to use the ballast to bring the submarine back on to the surface to stop.
I remember hearing at the time that one of the submarines had turned back to
Germany and it was sailed back to S.Africa by another crew.
The Govt no doubt wanted to suppress all this information. Jan.
Posted By: Jan
AfricanCrisis Webmaster
With acknowledgements to African Crisis.