Public experience warships ahead of Armed Forces Day

KwaZulu-Natal residents have the unique opportunity to jump onboard one of South Africa’s four fighting warships, the SAS Mendi, in the run up to Armed Forces Day next week.

The day commemorates South Africa’s worst naval tragedy, the sinking of the troopship the SS Mendi in the English Channel in 1917, killing more than 600 members of the SA native labour corps.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will address Armed Forces Day next week in Richards Bay on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal.

Commander of the SAS Mendi Leon van Zyl says, ” She’s one of the four sister ships and they provide South Africa’s primary surface warfare capability. She’s a warship meant to fight other war ships conventionally at sea. Her armament and all her sensors are designed for that but over the years we’ve come to adapt them to a more constabulary and asymmetrical warfare role that we utilise a lot up in the Mozambican channel up specifically and all around Africa.”