SA gives AU cabotage regime the thumbs-up

South Africa has added its support to plans by the African Union (AU) to set up an African ‘cabotage’ regime to ensure that only Africanowned vessels can trade within the continent’s coastal waters, Sobantu Tilayi, chief operations officer of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) told FTW last week. In its African Maritime Transport Charter, the AU has stipulated in detail how it plans to introduce cabotage laws that will ensure that only vessels owned or registered by African countries can trade within its coast. According to the AU, this is intended to curb the dominance of foreign shipping lines trading along Africa’s coastline while at the same time increasing intra-African trade. Tilayi said this was in line with South Africa’s own plans for its coastline which was why it was in full support of the AU’s intentions. “Samsa is very clear – we want to see South Africancontrolled shipping within our own waters. Our trade, like the rest of Africa’s, is dominated by coastal economies and largely driven by resource export. The bulk of this is being moved on foreign vessels with no benefit to us.” He said in this regard the organisation was working hard towards establishing a South African fleet and implementing laws that would see cargo in South African waters only carried on the back of a local fleet of vessels or that of an African-flagged ship. He said if Africa wanted to benefit from maritime trade then cabotage was the only way forward. “This is also the only feasible way to really grow intra-African trade while at the same time allowing us to develop the maritime transport infrastructure of the continent.” While there has been some industry resistance, Tilayi said he understood hesitancy to change, but did not think that introducing cabotage laws for South Africa or Africa would impact negatively on shipping. “America has cabotage. It is nothing new. We have no control at present over our tonnage in this country and that is the one area where we do need to get some form of control. Tilayi said the development of African maritime trade remained high on the AU agenda and therefore also on the SA agenda. “This year has been announced as the year of maritime and the introduction of cabotage laws for South Africa is one of the aspects we are pushing. This is not something that is going to disappear and we have already seen some interest from industry with big players coming forward to meet and talk to us about this.” While he would not elaborate on this, he said Samsa was convinced that cabotage would be for the better of South Africa. Industry, however, has retaliated saying there is not enough cargo to sustain a local shipping fleet, while South African tax and labour laws negatively impact on the registration of a local fleet. Durban-based transport lawyer, Andrew Robinson, said at least 12 pieces of legislation would have to be addressed to make it viable for any shipping liner to register a fleet locally. And this was just the beginning of the process. “The introduction of cabotage is not as simple as the government would have everyone believe and it will have a massive impact on trade along Africa’s coast.” The AU is currently in the process of getting as many African countries to sign the African Maritime Transport Charter, a document South Africa has indicated it is willing to sign. CAPTION Sobantu Tilayi … ‘Cabotage the only way for Africa to benefit from maritime trade.’