SAMSA to get more power, writes Ray Smuts
FLOATING UST buckets are here to stay but something good has at least come from the impounding in Cape Town seven months ago of the tanker Ritas, labelled a floating nightmare and real shocker by master mariners.
The 22-year-old Cyprus-registered tanker has been scrapped along with another, and four other vessels in the same fleet tied up over non-compliance with International ship management systems.
Captain Bill Dernier of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), told FTW all tankers must have in place company policy procedures and operational procedures subject to auditing every 12 months and two and a half years respectively.
In the Ritas's case there were many non-conformities such as severe corrosion and lots of repair work which had not been reported to the owners, and we informed the master that his ISM had failed - one of the reasons for the vessel's detention apart from the crack in her hull.
The upshot was that the ISM-accrediting authority went to the owners of Ritas and immediately tied up four other vessels by withdrawing their accreditation as auditing had not been carried out.
They had to get their act together before they could sail so that was the good side of the Ritas.
At the time of Ritas's detention, Cape Town's then port captain John Woodend, asked angrily: The ship was in class with Lloyds so how the hell can that be when she is in the condition she is in?
Woodend confirmed that an owner's representative had visited Cape Town to inspect Ritas and he is as peeved off as we are at the condition of the ship. (The crew had no fresh drinking water, for example).
Dernier told me South African authorities are not empowered to apply International Labour Organisation (ILO) protocols to foreign-registered vessels in local ports so we are very apprehensive about walking on board to test water or check conditions of employment.
However, this authority is coming and is something we would very much like to see as it would give us more power by being able to tie a ship up and say 'sort out the labour-related problems'.
Copyright Now Media (Pty) Ltd
No article may be reproduced without the written permission of the editor
To respond to this article send your email to joyo@nowmedia.co.za
