A member of a small South African research team at a remote Antarctic base has accused a colleague of assault and pleaded for intervention, officials have said.
A “response plan to engage the individuals involved” was “immediately activated,” officials from South Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), which supervises the base, said in a statement – but added that they had no plans to bring any of the team back home.
The DFFE said it received complaints of alleged assault involving two members of the overwintering team of nine on February 27 and was further investigating an allegation of sexual harassment. The department did not mention the names of those involved.
The intervention was revealed after a report from South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper detailed an email from the team that accused the man of attacking its leader and pleaded for help.
“His behavior has escalated to a point that is deeply disturbing,” the author wrote in the email, according to the Sunday Times, adding: “I remain deeply concerned about my own safety, constantly wondering if I might become the next victim.”
South Africa is the only African nation that operates a research station in Antarctica, the world’s coldest continent, where it established a scientific base in 1960. Its Antarctic station known as SANAE IV typically houses a team of scientists for 13 months, the DFFE said, adding that the current group was dispatched on February 1.
“The Department confirms that there were no incidents that required any of the nine overwintering team members to be brought back to Cape Town,” its statement said about the assault allegations. “If such incidents occurred, the management team of the Department would have replaced such an overwintering team member with immediate effect.”
This is not the first case of assault involving a South African expedition team. In 2017, at a research base in the remote Marion Island, a research team member was reported to have “vandalized another colleague’s laptop with an axe because of a love triangle they were involved in,” according to a South African parliamentary monitoring group.
The DPPE explained that members of its research missions are evaluated ahead of expeditions “to ensure they are able to cope with the isolation and can work and live with others in the confined space of the bases.”
However, it added, “it is not uncommon that once individuals arrive at the extremely remote areas where the scientific bases are located, an initial adjustment to the environment is required.”