‘It’s up to international agency to obliterate piracy scourge’

A lack of “collective will” in coming to grips with the piracy scourge off Somalia and elsewhere should be laid firmly at the door of the international community, says Jeremy Wiley, president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “The Chamber’s view is that the relevant international agencies have to get their act together to provide protection against pirates and also to come up with political solutions in Somalia, a country without effective government for many years. “That is totally unacceptable in the modern world and certainly not conducive to furthering trade ties between South and East Africa or other parts of the world. ”There is no military solution per se but all shipping has to be protected. The international community must sit together and come up with a comprehensive plan.” Wiley expects that the port of Cape Town could, in the short-term, play its part in handling vessels diverted from Suez around the Cape of Good Hope, stressing piracy in East and West Africa is an issue that has to be resolved with the utmost urgency, given it is fomenting similar lawless acts in other parts of the world. “The Chamber calls on the South African government and international agencies to resolve this crisis as soon as possible.”