SA’s R2m Antarctica love rescue
● SA’s polar research vessel detoured 700 nautical miles (almost 1,300km) to evacuate three members of the national Antarctic programme involved in an apparent love triangle, at a cost of about R2m.
The SA Agulhas II arrived back in Cape Town on Friday after retrieving the team members from remote Marion Island on its way back from the South African National Antarctic Expedition (Sanae) base in Antarctica. The detour added about three days to the trip and involved airlifting the members off the Island.
A fourth member was also evacuated, to attend to an ailing relative back home.
The department of environment, forestry & fisheries (Deff), which footed the bill, said the evacuation was unavoidable and in the best interests of the remaining 20 members of the Marion team, due back in April after a 14-month stint.
“The SA Agulhas II … was rerouted to Marion to evacuate them,” confirmed spokesperson Zolile Nqayi.
“The organisations they represented asked that they be evacuated (for disciplinary reasons) after remote counselling didn’t yield the desired result. For their sake and the rest of the … team’s, the department agreed to the evacuation.”
The department declined to divulge the nature of the dispute between three of the evacuees, other than to say it was serious enough to warrant evacuation. However, various independent sources told the Sunday Times the three members, reportedly two men and a woman, had been involved in some form of romantic entanglement that turned ugly. The subsequent tense standoff affected the wellbeing of the Marion team.
“Whatever the details, the ship is returning with people who have messed up their trip and transgressed due to bad behaviour,” said one source. “The cost to send the ship is staggeringly high.”
SA manages three scientific bases as part of its South African National Antarctic Programme (Sanap): Marion Island, Gough Island, and Sanae on the Antarctic mainland.
Team members comprise research scientists in fields ranging from zoology to oceanography, and technicians needed to keep the bases running.
Recent Sanap research successes have been overshadowed by concerns about base infrastructure and interpersonal problems at the remote sites, where the teams must endure severe weather conditions for extended periods. Marion Island is one of the most remote places on Earth, about 2,000km from the nearest permanent settlement.
In 2018 the Sunday Times reported on a Sanap team member who attacked a colleague with a frying pan on Marion, then trashed his room with a fire axe. The attacker was not evacuated, prompting criticism of Sanap management.
Crumbling infrastructure and a lack of psychological screening were among a list of concerns submitted to Deff in a 2018 memo by scientists who wish to maintain the programme’s world class reputation.
The ship is returning with people who have messed up their trip