By New York Post (World News) | Created at 2025-03-20 00:10:12 | Updated at 2025-03-20 23:26:16
23 hours ago
Nine members of an Antarctic expedition are locked up together at a research station 2,000 miles from civilization.
And one of them is a madman — accused of violently beating, threatening and sexually harassed at least two of his teammates.
The Post can reveal that the South African crew of three women and six men includes a glamorous doctor with her own skincare line and a deputy team leader who helped produce a short horror film during a previous stay at the station — along with engineers and a meteorologist.
The researchers on South Africa’s SANAE IV outpost won’t be relieved until December when temperatures at the South Pole are at their warmest for the year and seasonal ice storms pass.
In happier times, the colleagues were all seen smiling together before they set off on their extended mission.
Pictures show the crew looking chummy together last November, shortly before they set off on the ill-fated 13-month mission on the base in Queen Maud Land, which is surrounded by a glacial ice sheet.
But the broad smiles and thumbs-ups they flashed as they posed for pre-mission photos proved short-lived.
According to urgent emails fired off to authorities from the remote base, an unidentified male member of the South African crew stuck at SANAE IV became “deeply disturbed” within weeks of arriving.
Though, the complainant alleged, authorities were warned about his behavior even before they left South Africa on Feb. 1.
The message, which was sent Feb. 27, alleged the crew member assaulted and sexually harassed colleagues, and even threatened to kill one of them, creating “an environment of fear and intimidation,” The Guardian reports.
“His behavior has escalated to a point that is deeply disturbing. I remain deeply concerned about my own safety, constantly wondering if I might become the next victim,” the email said, as first reported on by South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper.
The identity of the crew member believed to have snapped was not released. But the roster of the researchers is as follows, according to the official South African National Antarctic Programme website.
- Mbulaheni Kelcey Maewashe, team leader and a senior meteorological technician
- Nivek Ghazi, the deputy team leader and an electronics engineer
- Dr. Sihle Mpho Lawana
- Nkululeko Welcome Khoza, a mechanical engineer
- Athenkosi Mabope, a communications engineer
- Geomarr van Tonder, an electronics engineer
- Allowed Tumelo Seepane, an instrumentation technician
- Alian Stuart Jacobs, a diesel mechanic
- Lebogang James Tsime, a electro-mechanical engineer
Currently, there are no plans to rescue the research team, leaving them trapped at the base without any outside contact until December, when a supply ship is due to moor up.
“There were no incidents that required any of the nine overwintering team members to be brought back to Cape Town. All on the base is calm and under control,” South Africa’s Environment Minister Dion George told The New York Times.
The ministry later said it was “not uncommon” for some crew members to experience an “adjustment period” after arriving in the desolate location.
South African authorities insist they are in contact with the base on a near-daily basis.
“The department is responding to these concerns with the utmost urgency and have had a number of interventions with all parties concerned at the base,” Peter Mbelengwa, communications chief of the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, said in a statement.
The government claimed that the dispute was over “a task the team leader wanted the team to do – a weather dependent task that required a schedule change.”
Conditions on the base are currently reasonable — with highs of around 15 degrees — though it’s still “summer” at the South Pole. From March through September, temperatures can drop to minus-75 Fahrenheit, and it stays dark for months, with the sun never showing its face.
Brutal winds of more than 60 mph can batter the landscape.
SANAE IV, which is about 100 miles from the edge of the ice shelf, was founded in 1997 as a permanent research station on Antarctica — designed specifically to withstand the punishing conditions for decades. It’s built on the side of a massive ice cliff so that snow will pile up against it and help shield it against the wind and cold.
In an eerie twist, the previous team on the base, which included Ghazi, produced a short horror movie about life on the base back in 2023, it has been revealed.
“Those that are lost but not forgotten,” a horror short, was submitted as an entry to the Antarctic Film Festival two years ago.
The film features an expedition team that leaves the station and dies in the Antarctic wastes — and then their ghosts come back to haunt the remaining crew of the outpost.
“The creepy events that occur around the station frighten the remaining members causing them to run out of fear leaving the station,” the move description reads.
Despite the recent scandal, the base is currently hiring for several vacancies, including two slots for electronics engineer posts.
The two-year contracts on the base pay a salary of just under 600,000 South African Rand ($32,700) and include food, accommodation, and protective clothing provided.
“The incumbent must be able to work independently with minimal support under extreme pressure and without supervision,” the job description reads.
SANSA did not respond immediately to The Post’s requests for comment.
