Red Sea Traffic Detour Exposes Challenges for African Navies

A major highlight this year has been most of the merchant shipping rerouting through Cape of Good Hope. With Houthi rebels still targeting vessels in Southern Red Sea, new opportunities for the African shipping industry are emerging. But the new norm is also exposing deficiencies, specifically challenges facing the African navies. As more vessels avoid the Red Sea, most African navies - especially in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) - have been put in alert. Indeed, illicit maritime activities such as IUU fishing and arms trafficking have been on the rise as African waters become busier.

The preparedness of African navies in the wake of the current geopolitical shifts was at the top of the agenda in the recent Sea Power for Africa Symposium in Cape Town. African naval leaders reported that the Red Sea instability has uncovered pressing challenges facing navies in the continent. Budgetary constraints have forced most navies in the region to operate outdated platforms, which greatly affects naval patrols in African waters. Further, inter-naval cooperation in Africa is limited, meaning coastal states are unable to combine their naval assets to confront common maritime problems.

Last week, South Africa’s Defense Minister Angie Motshekga told Parliament that the South African Navy (SAN) has only one working ship out of 49. All three of the SAN’s submarines are out of service, and five patrol vessels are broken.

“The current severe crisis within the SA Navy is due to capacity challenges of the Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor) Dockyard, which has led to [maintenance] not being executed as is required,” said Motshekga.

In addition, the Parliament heard that SA Navy did not achieve its target of 8,000 hours at sea during the 2023/2024 financial year. Prolonged maintenance and repairs of vessels by Armscor was blamed as the cause. During the period, only 2,641 hours at sea were achieved, with 1,680 reported as force preparation hours and the remaining 961 as actual deployment time.

With SAN regarded as one of the strongest naval forces in Sub-Saharan Africa, its current crisis is likely to be felt in the wider Western Indian Ocean region. In addition, SAN could benefit from collaboration with other maritime agencies such as SAMSA (South African Maritime Safety Authority), especially in search and rescue operations. The reduced capability of SAN is a major concern at a time when the Cape of Good Hope is seeing a surge in shipping traffic.