Tag: South Africa

South Africa's National Council of SPCAs has launched an urgent application to the High Court aiming to interdict an impending shipping export of live sheep to Kuwait. This comes in light of another live export in October 2019, where sheep were transported to the Middle East in horrendous conditions.

South African government should put a short term focus on tracking down a set of earlier announced stimulus packages, as well as on the revival of an inter-ministerial committee focused on South Africa’s maritime economic sector, said recently Deputy Minister in the Presidency.

According to the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) of Durban, a Brazilian crewman lost his life onboard a heavy lift vessel at South Africa while five of the vessel's personnel reported to have been injured as well. Further information about the type of the incident and the name of the vessel are not revealed yet.

The South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) expressed its disappointment concerning the slow development of the South African Ship Registry, commenting that it is due to partly lack of common vision and understanding among state entities.

The Port of Cape Town, the Department of Economic Development and Tourism and additional parties that attended a meeting on December 5, agreed on the implementation of a task team to handle the congestion taking place at the port, affecting the operations.

A Nigerian man suspected of kidnapping the crew of a Dutch cargo ship last year was arrested upon arrival at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands at around 10 a.m. on Thursday, December 5, after being extradited from South Africa.

DNG Energy, a South African LNG infrastructure provider, will start LNG bunkering in South Africa’s largest bunkering port, Algoa Bay. The initiative aims to improve access to LNG bunkers for commercial vessels on a trading route, that sees 56,000 vessels transit the region every year. Bunkering operations are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2020.

Although intense oil spills are limited and oil tanker accidents have been significantly reduced, the coastal nations still need to be prepared in case of urgency. During the 8th Regional Conference of the Global Initiative for West, in Cape Town, the Central and Southern Africa (GI WACAF), noted that bi-lateral and multi-lateral need to cooperate, in order to act immediate when an oil spillage shows up.  

The Namibian Ports Authority reports a remarkable improvement in the numbers of containers handled, since the beginning of operations at the new container terminal at the port of Walvis Bay, almost one month ago.

Enabling legislation in South Africa for the implementation of the IMO 2020, should be ready by year end, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has confirmed. Namely, Mr. Mbalula finally settled down the fears, stating categorically that the necessary legislation will be in place by the end of 2019.