Sisters of the sea make NPA history

Terry Hutson THE NATIONAL Ports Authority of South Africa (NPA) made history recently when an all-female crew undocked and piloted an ocean-going ship from Durban harbour. The vessel involved in the exercise was the container ship Haneburg, on a one-voyage charter to Safmarine to move empties from SA to the Far East. The ship was piloted from the port by Durban's Theresa Williams, who qualified as a marine pilot in 2001. The two attending tugs, which were both built in Durban, were crewed entirely by women including tug masters and marine engineers who had qualified in recent years under the NPA's transformation programme. The programme aims to create equality in the ports not only in matters of race but also gender. The tug masters and engineers have spent the last four years undergoing training within NPA and in Rotterdam "Since its inception, the NPA has recognised the advancement of women as one of the most critical aspects of transformation. We have therefore introduced a number of projects and training programmes designed specifically to attract women into the industry and empower them to develop their careers," said Siyabonga Gama, NPA's CEO. So far the programme has produced a female marine pilot (Theresa Williams), four female tug-masters - Lumka Sontshatsha of Cape Town, Xanthe Clarke of Port Elizabeth, Noeraan Daniels of Saldanha Bay and Nontsindiso Tshazi of Richards Bay - and two female marine engineers, Patricia Ntuli who is in service at Richards Bay and Eurica Florentino at Saldanha. There are also a number of trainee tug masters and marine engineers in the programme. Empowerment doesn't just begin and end with the marine department. Two of the seven port managers are female, Nosipho Sithole at the port of Durban (Africa's busiest port) and Ester Goosen at Port Elizabeth, while three of the NPA's seven executive general managers are female. The special undocking in Durban was timed to coincide with the National Women's Day, celebrated earlier this month.