Ahead of the State of the Nation Address (Sona) on February 12, the Maritime Business Chamber (MBC) of South Africa has appealed to President Cyril Ramaphosa to give serious thought to the country’s potential in the shipping industry.
The executive chairperson for the chamber, Unathi Sonti, says Sona this year comes “at a time when global maritime trade patterns, energy routes, and ports and harbours are rapidly shifting in ways that present South Africa with a rare strategic opportunity”.
Referring to liner trade rerouting around the Cape because of geopolitical volatility in the Red Sea, which had affected safe sailing in the Suez Canal since November 2023, Sonti says the local maritime sector could benefit from the modernisation of shipyard and dry dock infrastructure to unlock ship repair and marine engineering opportunities.
He reiterated the importance of ship-refuelling facilitation for Cape rerouting, especially for EU-Asia voyages.
The government should give serious thought to “creating an enabling environment for bunkering and its associated marine services ecosystem, with deliberate micro-, small-, medium enterprise inclusion”.
Sonti says the government should also be focusing on “providing policy certainty and a coordinated national stance for offshore oil and gas development, practical interventions for the meaningful integration of small-scale fishers into the commercial value chain, and addressing institutional fragmentation in maritime governance through a strengthened coordinating mechanism”.
However, the most pressing issue Sonti claims, is the longstanding lack of transformation.
“Over the past few years, the chamber expressed its views, areas of concerns and pleading with the government in prioritising on matters towards the development of a sustainable maritime industry in South Africa.”
He says these matters include but are not limited to the finalisation of the Transport Sector Codes.
Sonti says the codes are of particular importance for the local shipping sector, “as this industry remains one of the non-transformed industries in this country while it’s a key economic component”.
With Sona coming up soon, Sonti says it’s prudent, once more, to urge the Presidency to “position maritime affairs as a central pillar of South Africa’s transformative economic growth, industrialisation, and job creation agenda”.
