TNPA backs down on BEE ships’ agency demand – for now

The threat that Transnet National Ports Authority would revoke the licences of ships’ agencies who have not achieved Level 4 on their broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) scorecards seems to have dissipated for the time being. The threat, which was communicated to FTW, raised a lot of concern amongst some of the agents who were struggling to achieve this level – particularly on the equity-sharing section of BBBEE. And, indeed, two reasonable-sized agents had even approached maritime lawyer, Andrew Pike, of Van Velden Pike Incorporated, to register complaints against this TNPA ruling. “They’re big companies,” he said, “and the SA agencies, which are partly foreign-owned, have a problem with giving away equity.” But he saw certain remedies for this problem. “The Maritime Charter says, for example, that you can gain points elsewhere,” he told FTW. Riad Khan, CEO of the SA Ports Regulator, told FTW that the SA Association of Ship Operators and Agents (Saasoa) had laid a complaint with the regulator. “But they then asked for it to be suspended, while they discussed the issue with the TNPA.” This now remains in limbo until Saasoa decides what to do. FTW did a phone-around of agents and others in the shipping industry to discuss the problem, but we didn’t find any of the complainants amongst the agents we talked to. Andrew Thomas, CE of Ocean Africa Container Lines (OACL), told FTW that empowerment had been part of government policy for a number of years. And, while the Maritime Charter requires a score of 65% to register as Level 4, and some of what he described as “white-owned, one-man bands” could find it difficult to comply with the equity element, he did believe that everyone would comply. “However, it’s not something that can happen overnight,” he added. He also pointed out that the TNPA was responsible for promoting transformation in the economy, and its requirement for agents to achieve Level 4 was part of this task. Grant Stevenson, MD of Rennies Ships Agency, was quite content about his company’s status. “We’ve achieved Level 3,” he told FTW, “and Level 4 is quite achievable.” He did however feel that TNPA wasn’t quite playing the game. “It was withdrawn from the final version of the Port Regulations, but TNPA went ahead and imposed it anyway. But we, and all the other companies, will comply in the end.” And Mahomad Kajee, divisional CE of King & Sons, was also a contented man. “I’m also responsible for Grindrod Ships Agency,” he told FTW, “and we’ve already achieved Level 4.” But he also thought that TNPA was trying to take the law into its own hands. “It’s not legislation,” he said, “and they can’t penalise people for it.” But worried ships’ agents can possibly draw a breath of relief. The TNPA has told FTW that it is not presently pressing the issue. In the TNPA response, which took a long two weeks to reach us, the authority said: “Saasoa and the TNPA decided, after several discussions, that an action plan was needed to get those few vessel agents who are not at the Level 4 BBBEE to commit to achieving this goal. “The view was that Saasoa would play an ongoing facilitating role in this regard. However, at this point, a decision has not been finalised on this issue.”