SA ill-prepared for maritime risks

Increasing global utilisation of South Africa’s oceans and waterways has led to high maritime risks, for which the country is woefully underprepared. This is according to Sekabiso Molemane, chairperson of the South African Maritime Safety Authority’s Maritime Industry Committee. According to Molemane, finding viable solutions to this “massive challenge” lay with consultation and ongoing collaboration among stakeholders. She highlighted that the risks ranged from pollution and environmental degradation, vessel traffic

accidents and the improper use of the country’s waters by rogue elements in world trade. “South Africa lacks the human and equipment resources to respond properly and on time.” Molemane added that South Africa’s marine emergency response had previously rested on a foundation of co-operative institutional infrastructure built on the mandates and respective capabilities of mainly government entities. “Over time,” she said,

“the mandate of or main focus for most of the entities that formed the core of our response mechanism got reviewed and, in most cases, the review led to the erosion of the respective maritime elements. “The cumulative result of these reviews is a substantially eroded marine emergency response capability.” Examples of the situation included the diminished role of the South African Air Force in carrying out aerial functions as well

as the reduction of Telkom Maritime Communications to Telkom Radio, which has led, she said, to inadequate and obsolete communications infrastructure. In addition, Molemane stressed that the Department of Environmental Affairs’ Pollution Combating Function had inadequate and outdated pollution equipment. “Therefore, with the passage of time, the capability that the Department of Transport requires in order to respond to maritime emergencies has been largely diminished, in most cases both in terms of skills capacity, the equipment as well as institutional memory. This demise is largely driven by budgetary constraints within those institutions.” The cumulative result of these reviews is a substantially eroded marine emergency response capability. – Sekabiso Molemane