SAS Outeniqua up for disposal - official

May 14, 2004
Author: SA Navy

The following release was issued by the South African Navy earlier today (Friday, 14 May 2004):

The SA Navy’s largest vessel, the Russian built combat support ship SAS Outeniqua, is to placed up for disposal shortly after some 12 years of service.

According to a SA Navy spokesman the 21,000 ton vessel will be decommissioned and placed up for disposal at the end of July as part of the Navy’s renewal process.

He said the fact that the vessel did not fit in with the SA Navy’s current force design and that she was becoming increasingly more expensive to run and maintain, had contributed largely to the decision to put her up for disposal.

Outeniqua was launched in September 1991 as the Aleksandr Sledzyuk. She was renamed Juvent in April the following year when she was purchased by a shipping company. In February 1993 she was purchased for the SA Navy by ARMSCOR and re-commissioned in July of the same year.

She was refitted and upgraded periodically with her last being in 2000 when improvements were made to her logistic support capabilities and her flight deck.

Her primary role in the SA Navy was that of transporting vehicles and equipment in support of operations ashore. Her secondary role was that of Antarctic support, replenishment, search and rescue and relief work.

Outeniqua was also used in a number of diplomatic missions such as the delivery of the world’s largest mobile hospital and emergency supplies to the needy in Bosnia-Herzogovina in 1993. En route she also delivered farming utensils for the victims of the conflict in Sudan. In September 1994 she delivered relief aid in the form of mealie meal (maize) and other food supplies to Dar es Salaam to relieve the plight of the Rwandan refugees in Tanzania. In 1997 she made history when she was used as a venue for peace talks between the relevant parties in the conflict in the DRC.

In between she assisted the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in various missions to Antarctica and Gough Island where she carried out a repair mission in 2003.