Issued by the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
17 November 2000
The recently appointed 40th South African National Antarctic Expedition (SANAE) team is getting ready for a year in Antarctica with a two-week training course in Pretoria, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) announced at the weekend.
The course, which started last week and will run to 24 November 2000, will equip the team in all aspects such as first aid, fire fighting, cooking etc.
The DEAT Directorate: Antarctica and Islands, which is responsible for managing the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP), also announced that the SANAE 40. The team leader is Dr Farouk Parker (Medical Doctor) and his team is Messrs Adrian Adonis and Aiden Flack (Diesel Mechanics), Mr Robert Inglis (Mechanical Engineer), Mr Stephan de Wet (Electrical Engineer), Mr Anton Grobler (Electronic Engineer), Messrs Ntebeko Njovane, Dirk Uys and Carl Bellingan (Physicists), and Ms Chané Reyneke (Senior Meteorologist).
This team will depart for Antarctica from Cape Town on board DEAT’s research and supply vessel, the “mv SA Agulhas”, on 6 December 2000, and will only return in February/March 2002. The DEAT Officer-in-Charge of this expedition is Mr Adriaan Dreyer (Assistant Director of the Directorate: Antarctica and Islands). The present over-wintering team, SANAE 39, will return to South Africa on board the “SA Agulhas” which is scheduled to dock in Cape Town on 14 February 2001.
The following tasks are planned during this relief voyage:
During the 2000/01 summer season SANAP will also be collaborating with Germany, Norway and Finland by providing logistical support to their activities. South Africa will assist Norway by transporting one helicopter, three helicopter crew members and scientific cargo to Antarctica. A Finnish geological field team and their equipment will also be transported to Antarctica.
Two fixed wing aircraft (Dorniers) and 11 German crew members will be stationed at the SANAE Emergency Base, approximately 160 km from the SANAE IV base, during the 2000/01 summer period. They will conduct geophysical survey flights with aero-gravimetry and aero-magnetic measurements above the Southern Ocean off the coast of Dronning Maud Land. SANAP will provide the German air team with accommodation, food and communications for the period 20 December 2000 to 19 February 2001 at our Emergency Base.
At present, the German research vessel, the "Polarstern", is conducting extensive oceanographic research in the Atlantic polar front zone, in the Weddell Sea and in the Bellingshuasen/Amundsen Sea. The "Polarstern" will dock at Cape Town Harbour on about 1/2 December and depart for Antarctica on 5 December 2000 via the most isolated island in the Southern Ocean, Bouvet Island. There she will deploy Norwegian and South African scientists on the Island to conduct geological and biological research, after which she will continue with an oceanographic research programme.
On 20 February 2001, the "SA Agulhas", chartered by Germany whilst the "Polarstern" is busy with her oceanographic research activities, will depart Cape Town harbour for the German Antarctic research base, Neumayer, in order to collect cargo, summer logistical personnel and scientists who will be responsible for the construction of the science trench for the ice core drilling project at their summer camp at DML05. The "SA Agulhas" is due back in Cape Town on 12 March 2001.
Cape Town has, for some time now, established itself as a gateway to Antarctica for several countries and all indications are that this will expand further in future.
For further information or requests to interview SANAE 40 team in training in Pretoria contact: Mr Richard Skinner (Acting Director: Antarctica and Islands): (012) 310-3569