Mlitary personnel and equipment will continue to arrive in Port Elizabeth on Friday among them there will be a number of the Navy's ships.
The military influx is for Armed Forces Day on Sunday the 21st of February and next week's preceding programme.
Four vessels will arrive today- a submarine, which docked on Friday morning, a figate, and two different types of strike warships.
The Chief of the Navy, Vice Admiral Mosiwa Hlongwane, addressed guests aboard the replenishment ship, SAS Drakensberg this morning.
It is was the Navy's turn to host the annual armed forces day in 2016, and Port Elizabeth was chosen to host it.
Algoa FM News asked Admiral Hlongwane, as host of the extensive programme in Port Elizabeth, why Nelson Mandela Bay was chosen as the venue...
"We have chosen Port Elizabeth because we realised that this is the area where people are not aware about the capabilities that the defence force has and we said let us make the population aware of what the defence force is and what it stands for...the capabilities of the defence force" he said.
Meanwhile the the executive mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, Danny Jordaan, also attended the briefing on the SAS Drakensberg, and has expressed his delight that the Metro was the chosen venue.
"We first of all like to thank the minister of defence for chossing Nelson Mandela to have armed forces week here in our metro.It will be a tremendous display on beach and people must gather at Kings beach, Hobie beach to see the display of the military capability of this country something we have not seen in this metro" he said
Jordaan said apart from the spectacle awaiting residents of the Metro, impact of the arrival of more than 4,000 military personnel can not be overlooked...
"That means that the city will provide services,accomodation, hospitality,catering it's a huge economic impact as well on the metro. We are also engaging communities throughout the metro and it's going to be quite an exciting week for us and quite an honour for the metro to have been chosen as hosts of this armed forces week' he said.
