Crew stages hunger strike over non-payment of salaries

Ray Smuts
PRISON hunger strikes are a dime a dozen but an in-port, aboard ship, "we refuse to eat" scenario is rather different.
This unusual occurrence unfolded aboard the Angolan-registered vessel Omadimo Star - under repair for the last two years in the Port of Cape Town - when two UkraInian ship's technicians decided they could make it for a month on water alone.
The men, Igor Seroshtanov, 41, and Vladimir Bukaev, 49, allege they have not been paid for two months and are owed the equivalent of R50 400 each. They claim they have wives and families who rely on their financial support and are demanding repatriation to their homes in Sevastopol, a Black Sea port - but only once they have been paid what is due to them.
The master of the vessel, a Captain Ravil, has said the men will be paid in due course and thereafter repatriated.
FTW could not establish the latest state of affairs regarding the hunger strikers from TRT Shipping - port agent for the ship's owners - which pointed out that this was a matter between the crew and the vessel's owners.
Owned by an Angolan company Kompe, the Omadimo Star was arrested last year by the former crew for non-payment of wages. They were eventually repatriated and the arrest was lifted according to Cape Town's sheriff Riaan Karstens.
Dave Colley of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) was also unaware of the current situation relating to the two crew members, saying: "I don't concern myself with those things until she (the vessel) tries to go somewhere."