Ray Smuts
Owners suspected an
arrest might be imminent
THE SHERIFF of Cape Town, to quote a famous line from Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, is not amused.
An attempt to dispose of the vessel Argun, under arrest for the past ten months and already owing the Mother City around R1,3 million, has had to be postponed following last week's successful Cape High Court application on behalf of the Russian Federation, legal owners of the neat-as-a-pin fleet replenishment ship.
This is the latest development in a saga which has seen the Sheriff agree to several extensions of sale while negotiations dragged on with representatives of the Russian Federation, the alleged on-board suicide attempt by a senior ship's officer and Cape Town debts escalating at the rate of R120 000 a month.
Furthermore, millions of rand are owed other debtors in various parts of the world, according to papers at the Sheriff's office.
We expected this court application, call it a gut feeling, deputy sheriff Keith Bateman told FTW after the High Court had postponed the matter to May 16.
If compensation is not received by then the vessel, worth more than R10 million, will be auctioned toward the end of May, to what has been described as keenly interest potential buyers worldwide including South African interests.
Bateman said the Russian Federation had conceded in papers before court it had a moral obligation to settle the outstanding debt but submitted that certain inter-departmental difficulties had complicated the matter.
In another more recent development, the Sheriff of Cape Town arrested the 13 800 GRT Maltese-registered bulker Mayking on April 20 in respect of seven debts totalling R3 million for bunkers from various ports and stores taken aboard at Durban more recently.
The vessel, carrying a 14 000-ton cargo of broken rice from Karachi, India, to several West African ports had, according to Bateman, bypassed Cape Town with a low fuel load and then stuck to international waters off the South African coast. Currently at anchor off Robben Island, 100 tons of gas oil has since been taken aboard. We believe the owners suspected an arrest might be imminent and that they were probably trying to stave it off as the ship's radio, though working, was not being answered. Buying time is the name of the game.
All claims have been faxed to the owners, Silvester Navigation Company of Malta, but at the time of this writing there had been no response.
It seems to me, conceded Bateman, that we might have another Argun situation unfolding.
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