President Cyril Ramaphosa in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) has authorised a year-long extension to a Southern African regional economic community (REC) maritime security tasking off the east African coast.
Operation Copper was started in 2011 with three Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries – Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania – as participants in an anti-piracy tasking following hijacking of a fishing trawler in the Mozambique Channel. South Africa’s commitment was – and remains – the major component in the form of a SA Navy (SAN) platform, Maritime Reaction Squadron (MRS) elements and (at times) a SA Air Force (SAAF) aircraft contribution.
Austerity measures, forced on all SANDF services, impacted negatively on the SA Navy’s ability to task and deploy a Valour Class frigate for long range patrol in the busy waterway. This was seemingly why an Operation Copper tasking, made public by Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga, for SAS Mendi (F148) for early 2025 did not happen. Instead, SAS Amatola (F145) carried out a seven-week Operation Corona maritime security tasking off the east coast of South Africa from 6 January to 28 February.
Not being able to mount a single Operation Copper deployment in 2024 does not mean the SADC tasking is over, with a Presidential letter to National Assembly (NA) Speaker Thoko Didiza keeping the three-nation anti-piracy assignment alive.
The 2 April letter extends the “employment” of 200 SANDF personnel in fulfilment of “an international obligation” towards the SADC Maritime Security Strategy (MSS) along the southern African coast of the Indian Ocean. Sailors and other naval personnel, including the MRS, will continue to counter piracy and other illicit activities under SADC MSS Operation Copper for the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, the letter read.
Expected expenditure is given as R61 246 360 without any breakdown of specific costs such as refuelling and port charges as well as CoE (Cost of Employees).
Defence expert Dean Wingrin said in response to the deployment that the SA Navy “may struggle,” while Timothy Walker, Maritime Project Leader and a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, said “we’re at the stage now where exploring what possible and convincing reasons exist for this operation to continue years after the threat of piracy has gone from the Mozambique Channel is in the public and national interest.”
Due to a lack of ships, the South African Navy has struggled to undertake Operation Copper patrols in recent years. According to the most recent Department of Defence annual report, for the 2023/24 financial year, “the SA Air Force and the SA Navy were detrimentally impacted by the lack of maintenance contracts for prime mission equipment not being in place, resulting in the unavailability of spares, which affected the number of hours flown/hours at sea, level of force preparation and accreditation of pilots.”
The report stated that, “Given the lead times required to finalise maintenance and repair of specific naval platforms designated to conduct long-range maritime patrols, and given that most naval platforms were undergoing maintenance and repair, no Op Copper long-range maritime patrols were conducted during the strategic period.”
Similarly, no Operation Copper long-range patrols were conducted during the 2022/23 financial year “due to SA Navy prime mission equipment not being operationally available as required.”
The Department of Defence last year stated that “The Concept of Operations for Op Copper is being reviewed. Efforts are being undertaken to improve the situation and ensure the availability of platforms for East Coast patrols.”
For 2023/24, the SA Navy planned to spend 8 000 hours at sea but only spent 2 641 hours, a decline from the 2 770 hours spent at sea in 2022/23.
Most SA Navy vessels in commission were undergoing maintenance and repair during the 2023/24 financial year. “An added constraint was the unavailability of the SA Navy vessels at the Directed Level of Capability due to a lack of repair capacity at Armscor Dockyard and related procurement challenges,” the Department of Defence annual report stated.
“Maritime Defence continues to experience challenges with sourcing critical ship spares that are required to effect repairs on the SA Navy legacy vessels. Progress is being made to ensure the availability of combat-ready ships to meet the Joint Force Employment Requirements. With additional funding received from the National Treasury during FY2023/24 for the refit of Strategic Defence Package platforms, the Armscor Dockyard is in progress with the refit(s) of the Frigate SAS Isandlwana. The appointment of a Commercial Refit Partner/Specialist Engineering Service for the Submarine is still to be finalised and will be unpacked during the next reporting cycle,” the report added.
Although no Operation Copper patrols were undertaken last year, for the 2023/24 financial year the Navy deployed the SAS Mendi and elements of the Maritime Reaction Squadron conducted three Operation Corona maritime coastal patrols in conjunction with the SAPS and Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) in the Eastern Cape, Gansbaai area, and False Bay and Saldanha area.
