Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

South African National Defence Force Chief General Siphiwe Nyanda is expected to officiate at the arrival of the fourth and last patrol corvette, the SAS Mendi.

The corvette will arrive in Cape Town from Kiel, Germany, on Friday.

To commemorate the event, the SA Navy will also be holding a fleet review of all four corvettes in False Bay.

SAS Mendi sails from Kiel this week and will join three other similar ships, SAS Amatola, SAS Isandlwana and SAS Spioenkop already in Simon's Town.

Mrs Helena Retief, wife of the chief of the navy Rear Admiral John Retief had the honour of naming the new stealth corvette after the SS Mendi, a troopship that was sunk in the English Channel during World War I.

The SAS Mendi, on her way to South Africa, will be visiting Brest, France and Rota and Spain.

She will also be laying a wreath on the waters where the former SAS Mendi, the ship she was named after, sank during a collision on 21 February 1917.

The Amatola arrived in South African waters last November, the Isandhlwana in February this year and the Spioenkop in May.

The German Frigate Consortium at Hamburg and Kiel built all four ships.

The SA Navy said SAS Mendi contractors would commence fitting her combat suit and weapons systems upon arrival.

The police are ready to take over border control from the army, they said on Tuesday.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) is ready to take over the first phase of border control along the country's borders, police said on Tuesday.

Speaking at Middelput, a post on the Botswana border, the police's divisional commissioner of operational response, Arno Lamoer, said the first group of police would be deployed on Monday.

They were currently still receiving training at Upington in the Northern Cape.

The first deployment of police will be between Middelput and Nakop on the Botswana and Namibian borders.

The next phase of deployment would cover the whole Namibian border.

Lamoer told journalists the police units along the border would focus especially on combating international and organised crime.

He said the deployment of police would not only control the border, but would also empower police officers as they would receive additional training.

This includes intensive training in searching techniques, the identification of places of concealment, 4x4 training, relevant legislation and other skills.

The police's new duties along these borders in Botswana and Namibia form part of the entry/exit strategy prepared by the SAPS and the SA National Defence after a cabinet lekgotla in 2002.

That lekgotla decided to hand responsibility for border control from the SANDF to the SAPS.

Lamoer said that the police would control the entire border by March 2009.