Tsunami appeal continues to attract industry goodwill

TERRY HUTSON AS THE tsunami appeal continues to attract goodwill from all quarters, a number of shipping companies rallied around an appeal from the 1860 Heritage Foundation, a South African Indian cultural organisation, when it sought assistance in sending 15 containers of relief goods to victims in South East Asia. First to answer the call was Mitsui OSK Line (MOL) which offered free shipment on one of its vessels plus the use of containers. Other companies that gave willing help at no cost to the organisers were SACD who packed the containers at their Durban warehouse, Freight Dynamics who took care of the transport from the state warehouse to SACD and later to the Durban container terminal, Goods in Transit who handled the paperwork, and Sapo who waived all cargo handling fees. On top of that the Department of Customs, in terms of state policy, made eight containers of garments previously seized at the harbour available free of charge. The 1860 Heritage Foundation in turn raised money for a container of rice and last weekend nine of the containers were loaded on board the Mitsui vessel MOL Oueme bound for Colombo, where the organisation will be on hand to ensure proper distribution among tsunami victims in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. According to Ashwin Mohanlall, former member of parliament and now secretary-general of the foundation, another six containers will follow at a later date.