A delay in delivery of certain spare and replacement parts means SAS Manthatisi (S101) is still on the synchrolift at the Simon’s Town naval dockyard and is not yet in the water.

The Type 209 diesel electric submarine was one of three acquired by the Navy as part of the 1998 Strategic Defence Procurement Package (SDPP) and was commissioned in November 2005. She has been out of service since 2007 following what was then reported to Parliament as damage to the boat’s electrical systems when “someone” connected the submarine to its high voltage shore service “the wrong way round”.

Last month Flag Officer Fleet (FOF) Rear Admiral Bravo Mhlana told defenceWeb that Manthatisi left the shed, where she underwent major refit and overhaul work, on April 11. She was due to be put back into the water on May 5. This has not happened, a source said, due to a delay in certain parts being delivered to South Africa.

The source indicated planning, at this stage, was for Manthatisi to go back into the water “early in June” with a tentative commissioning date of August 15 set following sea trials.

Part of the refit saw S101 fitted with 480 new man-sized battery cells weighing 250 tons at a cost of around R250 million.

Navy watchers maintain the delays experienced were “normal” because it was the first of type to undergo such major work.

“This meant a steep learning curve for both the Navy and the Naval Dockyard. It must also be remembered the refit did not commence immediately after she came out of the water. It was delayed to allow it to fit into the new scheduled maintenance cycle. This means once she is operational again, the next submarine will move into the maintenance and overhaul schedule,” the source said.

The refit and overhaul work is in accordance with laid down schedules for the Type 209 submarine as well as being in line with the Navy business plan for its underwater craft.
 

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With acknowledgement to Kim Helfrich and defenceWeb.
 

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Funding is certainly a major factor in this matter, but not the only one.

No one outside the establishment is saying what really happened and what is still to happen.

And the implications of the incorrect recharging procedure are certainly greater than R200 000.

For one, the boat was only operational for two years after commissioning before it was critically damaged. This should be about 7 to 15 years, depending on its use profile.

And the cost of the replacement batteries is not R250 million, it is more like R35 million, maybe R50 million. The balance is partly repair work and partly refit work. But no one other than on the very inside knows these details.

It was decided only to repair this damage during the first refit because there was no other way of getting funding.

As Lieutenant-General Steyn testified at the APC a little more than a week ago, there was no funding in the SPDs for anything other than acquisition costs.

But it is not correct that the boat is going through a normal use/maintenance profile.

It will be interesting to see whether she goes back into full operational state after the current work.

Actually, this matter needs to be fully and transparently ventilated in a board of enquiry and not by unofficial inferential means as has been the case since 2007.