Is this a true reflection of our ports’ emergency response?

The recent incident regarding the grounded vessel at Clifton Beach has raised some debate about the effectiveness of Cape Town port’s emergency response. In the May 15 edition of the Cape Times, writer Melanie Gosling told the tale of a Sunday morning phone call to port control from a concerned Clifton flat resident who was reporting a long-line fishing boat about to be grounded off First Beach. But she was fobbed off with the instruction to phone the police. Caller Mea Bruning and her husband did that, and also contacted the Table Bay National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), who immediately came to the scene. And, after the SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) and tug boat owner/operators Smit Amandla had become involved, the salvage operation for the stranded Japanese fishing vessel was raised to a national level. A further call from Bruning to the port manager, Sanjay Govan, raised the promise that he would “make sure it doesn’t happen again, and make sure our people know how to deal with it” – something that you would have thought a port control should already know how to do. Is this a true reflection of what our port authorities are all about? FTW Online invites you to follow a discussion on this in our new forum. Click the link below. Link to forum