South Africa is in a unique position to leverage substantial opportunities within the maritime industry but needs greater buy-in from industry participants.This was the message from South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) acting CEO Sobantu Tilayi at a roundtable discussion, in Durban, on Sunday, ahead of the second eThekwini Maritime Cluster Summit that takes place in the city this week.

He noted that a lack of awareness about potential opportunities within the maritime space dated as far back as 1996 and, despite advances made through Operation Phakisa, there was still some way to go. 

With the population in sub-Saharan Africa expected to double by 2050, he pointed out that South Africa’s maritime sector was well positioned to benefit. All but two of the cities expected to benefit from this growth were located on the coastline.

Pointing out that “our solutions can’t only be our solutions”, he said South Africa needed to see itself as part of the wider continent-wide maritime industry. Just 40% of the value expected to be extracted from this growth would come from South Africa with 60% coming from elsewhere in Africa.

Tilayi said that, already, there were moves to rationalise maritime polices across the continent. Samsa had been contacted by representatives from Angola a week ago to extend its certification of seafarers to that country. Three weeks ago, it had been approached by Madagascar with a similar request.  

Both Tilayi and Sizwe Nkukwana, the Operation Phakisa programme manager for Samsa, said the job creation potential of the maritime sector needed to be more aggressively “sold” across South Africa.

Nkukwana pointed to some advances when it came to technical skills development and said that Samsa would throw its weight behind initiatives to promote training and job creation in the hospitality and cruise liner sectors.

He said “some strides” had been made towards securing some of the 250 000 jobs on cruise liners for South Africans.

He also suggested that all companies operating within South Africa’s marine transport sector should provide Samsa with a minimum uptake of South African seafarers.

Nkukwana welcomed the approval of the Maritime Transport Policy this year which would give government some guidance and ultimately result in the update of the Merchant Shipping Act.

Through Operation Phakisa, he said, this year would see greater focus on the renewal of South Africa’s aged fishing fleet. Vessels were up to 40 years old and there had been almost no investment capital assets. Instead, old vessels from Europe were being used. Supporting the industry to invest in new vessels would have a positive impact on ship builders, he said.

Both Nkukwana and Tilayi called for more locally owned ships to fly the South African flag.

Tilayi said that, currently, four ships had been registered under the South African flag. He said Samsa was negotiating to register additional ships in the bulk market and expected eight ships to be registered by the end of the calendar year. 

He noted that it was important for government to provide incentives for ship owners to register ships locally and suggested that the use of locally registered ships become a factor in the granting of mining licences by the Department of Mineral Resources.

This would allow the local industry to benefit from the large amount of commodities exported from South Africa. Currently, more than 95% of South African exports depart via ships owned and regulated in foreign countries.