The lawyer representing Romero Hector, the widower of Lieutenant Commander Gillian Hector, has hit back at the SANDF, accusing it of wanting to silence the Navy commander.
This relates to an SANDF statement in which they claimed Romero Hector snubbed them in their efforts to communicate the Board of Inquiry (BOI) into his wife’s death.
Lieutenant Commander Gillian Hector, Africa's first female submarine navigator aboard the SAS Manthatisi, along with Master Warrant Officer William Masela Mathipa (Coxswain) and Warrant Officer Class One Mmokwapa Lucas Mojela (Coxswain in training), died during a storm on September 20 last year.
The tragedy occurred when high waves affected a vertical transfer exercise involving the SA Air Force Maritime Lynx helicopter and the SA Navy submarine SAS Manthatisi.
The submarine was en route to Cape Town when seven crew were swept overboard, resulting in the death of the four A BOI confirmed the incident was not due to human error and it “was just the submarine was at the right place at the wrong time when Mother Nature had the final word”.
The widower’s legal counsel, Brian Plaatjies, said the SANDF’s statement was an attempt to “silence his client”.
In his response, to the SANDF, Plaatjies also cast doubt on the BOI’s findings.
Plaatjies labelled the SANDF’s earlier statement as ill-conceived, which suggested that Hector should complete all internal procedures before contacting the media and claimed that legal counsel (Plaatjies) did "not have his best interests at heart."
While the SANDF did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday, Plaatjies said: “The last sentence of the media statement in respect of the client’s legal counsel’s influence, is with respect ill-conceived and shortsighted in the Navy’s attempt to silence the client, who rightfully had engaged his counsel, to obtain a copy of the BOI. It is foolhardy and premature to exchange blows at this early stage with the counsel involved, for the fact that the latter, as a Military Law specialist, will leave no stone unturned to expose inadequacies, if any, in that BOI.
“It is the personal view of the (report) writer, that it seems that the BOI... is reminiscent of the apartheid era inquests held by magistrates into the deaths of political activists, who died in police custody, all concluded ‘no one is to blame’,” said Plaatjies.
Plaatjies refuted claims by the SANDF that his client refused to meet with them. Instead, he claimed, he was met with logistical red tape.
The SANDF had said Hector “elected not to make use of this opportunity” after he received notification that he should make travel arrangements to be briefed.
“In respect of the signal notification of August 30 ...authorising the client to attend the briefing on September 4, the client followed naval procedures to secure road transport authority, when this failed to materialise, also to secure a flight ticket, this also failed to materialise, through no fault of the client. This can be confirmed as the client completed all the required documentation and transmitted same; however, authority to obtain both modes of transportation was never received,” said Plaatjies.
Since his wife's death, Hector has been stationed at the Naval Station Port Elizabeth in Gqeberha with his toddler son, working remotely with SANDF's permission “as the painful memories of his wife were “too raw” associated with being stationed in Simon’s Town.
However, this arrangement will now be uprooted as Plaatjies confirmed that the SANDF has issued a Return to Unit instruction for Hector “
This smacks of a knee-jerk reaction, given that the client was posted to Gqeberha on April 15 2024, in the absence of any consultation”.
Cape Times