Next week the South African Navy or whatever vessel is floating will be joining in with the Chinese, Russians and Iranian naval vessels conducting a practice training exercise. Originally called Exercise Mosi III it was renamed Will for Peace and takes place from the 9th-16th January somewhere in the Cape waters. Simonstown is the closest naval base so I would imagine the training will be close by.
What I found entertaining is when you Google the SA Navy asking how many vessels they have the answer is some what misleading. 60 is the answer followed by many are non functional due to budgetary constraints. The 4 Frigates and 3 submarines have only one functioning Frigate. The submarines along with the 3 Frigates require full refitting which the Department of Defense has no budget for. You do start to wonder what kind of training exercise this is and it is more about the Chinese and Russians showing the West and especially the States that South Africa is very much in their pocket. The addition of having Iran join in is just the icing on the cake and will not go down well with the US.
I was reading further that the Navy only expects funding for their vessels by 2033/34/35 as current budgets are for salaries only. The money being spent on the vessels currently is ongoing maintenance and you wonder what the state of these vessels will be in ten years time when they would be refitted. Kind of strange that they already know a set time frame even if it is vague and who knows what government will be in power by then. Maybe there is not enough corruption opportunities to happen with a vessel refitment being done by a specialist naval company.
This training exercise was meant to take place over the G20 summit which would not have gone down very well and why it was postponed. South Africa has shown it's non alignment with the West by hosting sanctioned countries like Russian and Iran. Allowing this to happen and willing to host these nations sends a clear message on where South Africa stands and the Chinese and Russians know this and why they promote such training exercises. This has nothing to do with training as what could SA learn from this as they have no vessels of their own. China or Russia would love to have a naval fleet based in Simons Town at the bottom of Africa and is probably on the cards to happen and why SA has no operational vessels.
One just has to look at the relationship SA has with the US and I would call it non existent and deservedly so. The US were not involved in the Africa Aerospace and Defense exhibition held every two years. The US was often involved and now has been omitted leaving the Chinese along with Russia, India, Turkey , UAE and Brazil which are BRICS or are reportedly joining BRICS.
Reports suggest SA has a confusing foreign policy, but this is not confused and is intentional. The SA US relations must be at an all time low and would go as far as saying they are no longer allies. SA has always looked for hand outs being a begging country with corrupt leadership benefitting and when there are no benefits to be had they are very much a socialist communist thinking country. Call it what you like as this is at best poor political judgement that will not benefit the country in any shape or form with a population that despises the West due to a vast percentage not educated to think for themselves.
