The widower of the deceased, who was South Africa’s first black woman naval commander, is a senior officer within the South African Navy.
by Blue Africa News
A widower of one of three South African Navy officers who died in a September, 2023 submarine tragedy near Cape Town, has blamed negligence for the fatal incident. The accident occurred during an exercise conducted in rough seas.
Romero Hector, whose wife Lieutenant-Commander Gillian Hector was among the victims said that a priority crime report showed systemic failures in planning, safety procedures, and leadership contributed to the deaths.
“My first thoughts and my understanding of what happened is completely different to the other two families involved because I’m a senior officer within the South African Navy,” Hector, a senior navy officer said recently.
“The Navy gave a report which indicated that it was a mother nature incident, a one page of that, but the actual report is 1500 pages of findings in negligence, in shortcomings, in procedural flaws,” he added.
The report he referred to was compiled courtesy of an investigation by South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) popularly known as the Hawks, with his input forming part of it. Findings link the incident to “serious failures in planning, risk management and leadership.”
On 20 September 2023, a naval exercise near Kommetjie turned tragic when three South African Navy officers; Lieutenant-Commander Gillian Hector, Warrant Officer Mmokwapa Mojela, and Master Warrant Officer William Mathipa, lost their lives, in what the Navy initially called a freak accident caused by a strong wave that swept the officers off a submarine.
The South African government in a statement said the incident reportedly involved about seven SA Navy divers, “who seemed to be in distress and experiencing difficulty after being washed off the deck of a submarine at Slangkop Lighthouse off Kommetjie.”
The Hawks report and subsequent comments suggest that a lack of preparation that may have included a lifejacket that failed to open properly and bad decisions about an operation in heavy weather around the “Cape of Storms” as South Africa’s Western Cape waters are known, may have contributed to the deaths.
Romero said he will be out of the Navy by December, because “I can’t see myself in this environment any further. I cannot. I am in the process of de-volunteering and by December, I will be out of the system because it’s not what I thought it was.”
Oliver Ochieng, Blue Africa News