RAY SMUTS THE NATIONAL Ports Authority is not, by the very nature of things, into philanthrophy but will nevertheless fork out R3.7 million ¨C money it has no hope of ever recovering ¨C for raising the wreck of a ship that sank in the port of Cape Town five years ago. The 490-ton, 32-metre, fishing trawler, Southern Harrier, was moored at quay 704 when she started taking water and sank ten metres to the ocean bed. Cape Town harbour master, Captain Rufus Lekala, explains the vessel belonged to a ¡°one-man¡± liquidated company, PRT Fishing. The reason it took so long to raise the vessel was a protracted high court action between the NPA and the company over some R490 000 owing in mooring and other fees. The action was eventually won by the NPA after the court handed rights to the Southern Harrier to the port authority. The sad part of it all is that the NPA will not even share in the R80 000-odd realised from scrapping the 25-year old ship and will simply to have to write off all monies incurred in this saga. On the positive side, it now has an extra free berth. The section where the Southern Harrier was berthed is currently occupied by nine arrested vessels, including a bulk carrier and a diamond ship, all owing monies to third parties. ¡ñ Entering the port of Cape Town under tow for bunkers recently was an unusual structure that reminded this correspondent of a floating jail. It turned out to be a barge transporting a large accommodation wing for oil workers in Angola.
