SAS President Kruger was the first of three President-class Type 12 frigates built in the United Kingdom for the South African Navy (SAN) during the 1960s.

In the mid-1970s, President Kruger played a minor role in the South African Border War, conducting patrol operations off the Angolan coast.

A pair of American 12.75-inch (324 mm) Mk 32 triple-barrelled anti-submarine torpedo tubes were added amidships and their electronics were upgraded, including the addition of a Thomson-CSF Jupiter early-warning radar atop a new mainmast.

[1]: 222  During her working up period at HMNB Portsmouth, President Kruger went to the assistance of a disabled Norwegian freighter, SS Johan Collett on 5 February 1963.

[3]: 49  President Kruger departed England on 27 February and arrived in Cape Town on 28 March to be welcomed by the Minister of Defence J. J. Fouché and other notables.

They arrived back in South Africa on 27 November and President Kruger was paid off shortly afterwards to begin her modernization at Simon's Town Naval Dockyard.

She departed Simon's Town on 28 January and visited ports in Portuguese Angola, the Canary Islands, Portugal, and Italy before arriving at Toulon.

[3]: 125–27  President Kruger towed the disabled tanker MV Simfonia clear of Danger Point on 24 June and acted as the guardship for the Lipton Cup regatta off Durban in July.

Together with Maria van Riebeeck and Tafelberg, the ship participated in Sanex '71 with a pair of British frigates, the submarine HMS Oberon and the replenishment oiler RFA Tidesurge.

[1]: 227  Two years later, a small British task force that included the nuclear-powered attack submarine HMS Dreadnought was reinforced by President Kruger, President Steyn, the destroyer SAS Jan van Riebeeck, and Tafelberg for an unannounced exercise that simulated the defence of a convoy that was to be "attacked" by the submarine SAS Emily Hobhouse.

President Kruger departed Simon's Town on 3 June, sailing via Walvis Bay, Abidjan and Las Palmas to Norfolk, Virginia.

On 6 July, members of the ship's company paraded through the streets of New York, after which she sailed home to Simonstown via Charleston, South Carolina and Las Palmas.

However, the imposition of United Nations Security Council Resolution 418 put an end to both the sale of the replacement corvettes, as well as any major refurbishment of the President-class frigates, although President Kruger had her fire-control system upgraded and her electronics modernized during a refit in 1979–1980.

Shortly after beginning the turn, an argument ensued between the OOW and the principal warfare officer (PWO) over the proper amount of wheel to apply.

[1]: 234–35 [Note 1] A naval board of inquiry was appointed shortly afterwards that determined the cause of the collision was of a lack of seamanship by the captain and watch officers of the ship.

The Justice Minister, Kobie Coetsee, subsequently introduced a retrospective change in law to allow him to hold an inquest into the death of the only crewman whose body was found.