After the email went viral, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) responded by saying that the man involved in an alleged assault wrote a formal apology to the victim and participated in further psychological evaluation.

"The Department confirms that there were no incidents that required any of the nine overwintering team members to be brought back to Cape Town.

"If such incidents occurred, the management team of the Department would have replaced such an overwintering team member with immediate effect, as the DFFE's position on the matter is clear: zero tolerance for any misconduct that would affect the working and relationship conditions at the SANAE IV," said the department.

However, Grande does not believe that this will help. He said the government's idea to engage mental health counsellors to address the problem might be effective, but that mental health counselling may not be successful in all situations.

"They don't want to spend money to mount a rescue mission or maybe they believe it would be a national embarrassment to do so. Counselling is wonderful for a variety of purposes like reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, obsessiveness, paranoia and mood instability. It is not ideal to prevent a person who is a thousand of miles away from being violent.

"Violence could erupt at any moment in that station in my opinion. The alleged perpetrator should be evacuated, and the alleged offence would have resulted in an arrest in South Africa."

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Antarctic Crisis | 'Violence could erupt at any moment in that station' - Mental health expert