Ray Smuts A NEW Cape High Court judgement in favour of substantial unpaid wages to crew of the Russian fleet replenishment tanker MT Argun, arrested in the Port of Cape Town four years ago, may for them not end on an altogether happy note. They could well lose out on an overall claim for R4 million in view of an earlier Bloemfontein Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that the owners of the vessel - said to be the Russian Federation - must first pay the Sheriff of Cape Town’s ‘preservation costs’, estimated by now to run to close on R5 million. The vessel is only valued at around R6 million when it goes on judicial auction next month. The tidy black and white ship, upgraded two years ago to the tune of some R2 million, thought to have been bankrolled by Russian financiers, has never left Cape Town since her arrest and has constantly been monitored by NPA port control and the Sheriff’s office. Mother City Sheriff Hennie Hurter was not available for comment last week but earlier told FTW that recent Supreme Court of Appeal judgements had clarified ‘certain grey areas’ in South African maritime law with regard to ships’ arrests. “What is now clear is that the onus rests with the arresting creditor/s to pay the Sheriff’s costs of preservation,” he said. All of which explains why his office is intent on taking a much harder future stance and insisting on immediate payment where monies have to be expended on visiting ships. As ship’s masters go, the Argun has had a rather unfortunate record, testified by one who has expended a great deal of time fighting for crew justice. Master Korolev recalls a successor severely injured after falling from a cabin porthole onto the deck below and another found dead later of a suspected heart attack in his cabin, which leads him to assess Argunas ‘an unlucky vessel, especially for a captain.” One course open to the crew may lie in trying to recover the rest of the money from the Russian government, but this could well prove easier said than done.
