Africa-Press – South-Africa. Six SA National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers were killed and three were injured when a fire swept through the Lohatla training centre in the Northern Cape on Friday.
According to the SANDF, the fire broke out at about 13:45 and rolled over from the western border of a mine adjacent to the training area.
It has not been extinguished yet.
“It was reported that six soldiers of the South African army lost their lives during this incident, and three [who] were injured with second degree burns [have] been evacuated to the nearest hospital,” Major General ReneĢ Mercuur said in a statement.
Vehicles and equipment were destroyed.
The SANDF said its focus was containing the fire and accounting for all members who were in the area when it broke out.
“The fire brigade are doing everything in their power to extinguish the fire which has resulted in the destruction of camping equipment and vehicles.”
Defence and Military Veterans Minister Thandi Modise extended her condolences to the families of the six soldiers who lost their lives.
According to Mercuur, the army has been deployed in the vicinity in preparation for the annual SA army exercise, Exercise Vuk’uhlome.
The blaze comes weeks after crew members of the SA Navy submarine SAS Manthatisi were swept out to sea and three lives were lost. The submarine had been en route to Cape Town when it was hit by rough waves off Kommetjie.
At around the same time, four soldiers were killed in a vehicle accident on the outskirts of Upington in the Northern Cape.
According to defence analyst Dean Wingrin, the root cause of the accidents should not been looked at in isolation because it boils down to budgetary constraints.
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“Obviously, the defence force has to train to keep its staff upskilled as they progress to more senior ranks. For all of this, the navy needs time at sea, the air force needs time to fly and the army needs to conduct operations and training exercises. For all of this, you need a budget,” Wingrin told News24.
“The budget has been in steady decline for the last decade. The entire defence force is working on a shoestring [budget] in trying to keep active. For example, with the vehicle deaths, were the SANDF vehicles maintained? We all know that military vehicles operate in harsh condition. They get abused and require regular servicing.”
He added that the common thread in the deadly incidents was that they occurred during training exercises.
“However, we should also be wary that there are human factors attributing to these accidents as well as a large dose of bad luck.”
“We also need to look a little bit deeper, such as the senior leadership of the exercise and of the navy, to see if they have the relevant experience and knowledge of the conditions that were occurring on that day, to allow that exercise to go ahead, or they should have foreseen and made a decision not to go ahead with the exercises,” Wingrin added.
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