Six fishermen were successfully evacuated from a fishing vessel off the west coast near Port Nolloth in the Western Cape during the early hours of Friday in a dramatic rescue that ensued following to the vessel running aground.
In command of the rescue effort was South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) surveyor and acting Principal Officer for the Port Nolloth region, Captain Justin Coraizin and a De Beers/SAPS team, during which Capt Coraizin personally saw to it that the men were safely evacuated in conditions he described as extremely dangerous.
Capt Coraizin said the Luderitz registered vessel, MV. Fukula, (previously, African Bounty) apparently drifted and ran aground in an unhospitable area off the Atlantic Ocean some 12,7 nautical miles, south of Port Nolloth while on route to Saldanha Bay.
Fishing vessel MV Fukula almost two-thirds deep in water after running aground off the west coast of the Western Cape. A rope used to evacuate its 6-crew member can be seen on the left of the picture, while equipment to contain a fuel spillage is also visible to the right of the vessel.
“It is not clear yet how the vessel got involved in the accident in clear calm seas. When we reached it, it was already two-thirds underwater and we immediately made the effort to rescue the 6-member crew, using ropes. The vessel is lying in a very difficult position that makes it hard to reach from the shore,” said Capt Coraizin
He described the area as being in the vicinity of De Beers mining area in the Atlantic Ocean and the site of the accident as being very remote, only reachable with off-road vehicles as the terrain is very rocky and sandy.
SHOCKED BUT SAFE: The 6-member crew of the MV Fukula which was evacuated in a dramatic rescue operation off the west coast of the Western Cape after its fishing vessel went aground in unhospitable terrain some 12.7 nautical miles south of Port Nolloth. They are (From Left), Mr Nkandi Lysias (skipper), Mr Simon Shikong (mate), Philemon Mbungu (chief engineer), Mr Shimbilinga Hafeni (bosun), Mr Petrus Nekamba (cook) and Mr Matthew Theodore (deck hand)
Shortly after the accident, the crew raised an alarm that was picked by the SAMSA Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Cape Town and to which Captain Cozairin and the charter vessel the Aukwatowa which was the first responded to the scene from the local port in Port Nolloth.
He said the vessel Aukwatowa had been first to reach the scene within a hour and half after incident occurred, and whereupon arrival, a rubber duck team was launched to investigate the accident. However due to dark conditions, this first effort was abandoned.
“However, we were lucky that our efforts worked well from the onset. We threw rope and it connected the first time, and after tightening it hard around some rocks, we managed to get each crewmen to climb towards shore and fortunately, each one of them was safely evacuated. The rescue effort took about 45 minutes,” said Capt Coraizin.
The rescue team had very limited – less than an hour window to get the crew to safety as the tide was coming in, said Capt Coraizin.
THE RESCUE TEAM: Captain Justin Coraizin (second left in green overalls) with members of the rescue team that braved and early morning to evacuate a crew of fishing vessel that went aground off the Atlantic Ocean coast on Friday night.
He said the fishing vessel had about 2500liters of diesel onboard and it appeared to be leaking. “We are closely monitoring the situation and taking such measures are are necessary to contain any spillage while we continue with our investigation of the incident,” he said.
SEAFARER TRAINING BOOST: (From Left) Professor Derrick Swartz, Vice-Chancellor, Nelson Mandela University; Mr Sobantu Tilayi, acting CEO, South African Maritime Safety Authority; Ms Olufunmilayo Folorunso. Secretary-General, African Shipowners Association and Dr Hisashi Yamamoto, Secretary-General: Global On-Board during the signing of an MOU between the South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI) and Global On-Board Training Centre in Port Elizabeth on Friday.
Seafarer training for South Africa and the rest of Africa has been given a further boost following to the signing of a historical memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI) and Global On Board – an International Maritime Organization (IMO) recognized institution in Port Elizabeth on Friday.
Essentially according to the parties, the MoU will enable South Africa and other African countries an opportunity to work with the Global On-Board Training Centre in the identification and placement of cadets on trade vessels globally. SAIMI, based on Port Elizabeth is now responsible for the country’s cadet training management as part of its future objectives that also include research and related matters pertaining to the country’s maritime sector.
With the collaboration established between SAIMI and Global On Board Training Centre, the institution will be joining several institutions in countries including the Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy and the Admiral G.I. Nevelskoy Maritime University both of Russia, the Dalian Maritime University (China), the Istanbul Techinical University Maritime Faculty (Turkey), the John B. Lacson Foundation Maritime University (Philippines, and the Korea Maritime University (Republic of Korea).
In the video below, the parties to the MoU, Dr Yamamoto and SAIMI chief executive officer, Professor Malek Pourzanjani, along with the witnesses – SAMSA acting CEO, Mr Sobantu Tilayi and African Shipowners Association secretary-general, Ms Olufunmilayo Folorunso, explained the rationale behind the MoU:
South Africa’s maritime industry’s conference over three days in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape wound down on Friday afternoon with delegates having taken account of development initiatives and progress achieved to date, and concluding that the country could do even better than it has so far.
Held at the Boardwalk Conference Centre situated alongside the city’s famous Summerstrand beachfront, under the theme: “Expanding Africa’s maritime industry potential: Implementing the Maritime Agenda”, the indaba attended by about 350 delegates from both South Africa and abroad, involved
feedback on progress achieved with key issues identified as constraints to South Africa’s maritime sector development in the five years since the inaugural industry conference held in Cape Town in 2012,
the identification of investment opportunities currently existing in the sector and how best to unlock these,
trends in domestic and global maritime sector research and innovation, as well as
the crucial aspect of sustained collaboration through partnerships regionally and globally.
Representation consisted of delegates from the public and private sectors, education and research institutions, as well as industry bodies in South Africa, the African continent and internationally.
Public sector contributors included South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande; Eastern Cape MEC for Agriculture Development & Agrarian Reform, Mr Mlibo Qhoboshiyane; Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor, Mr Athol Trollip; Transport Department acting Director: Maritime Policy, Mr Dumisani Ntuli; Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries deputy Director: Investment Promotion, Ms Lisa Geswindt; Department of Public Works deputy Director-General, Mr Dhaya Govender; Department of Trade and Industry chief Director, Ms Zukiswa Ncaphayi and Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation official, Mr Rudhzani Mudau.
Institutional representatives included the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) acting CEO, Mr Sobantu Tilayi; Transnet CEO, Mr Richard Vallihu; Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) regional manager, Mr Kingsley Dell-Robertson; Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) representative Mr Cyprian Marowa and Coega Development Corporation (CDC) manager for business development, Ms Sandisiwe Ncemane
Industry representatives included Ms Hermoins Manuel of Nautic Africa, Captain Keith Burchell of Burport Marine Consultancy Africa, Mr Adrian Strydom of South African Oil & Gas, Ms Lindsay Falkov of Ernst & Young, Mr Prasheen Maharaj of SA Shipyards, Mr Edward Shalala of Pangaea Commodities, Mr Dave van der Spuy of Petroleum Agency SA, Professor Trevor Jones of the International Bunker Industry Association and Ms Olufunmilayo Folorunso of the African Shipowners Association.
From tertiary education, skills development and research institutions, delegates included Nelson Mandela University (NMU) Vice-Chancellor, Prof Derrick Swartz; South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI) CEO, Professor Malek Pourzanjani; Ms Elsie du Toit of Umsholozi TVET College; Mr Malcolm Alexander of Transport Education & Training Authority; Professor Ed Snyders of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology; Professor Charles Okujeni of the Western Cape University; Dr Hisashi Yamamoto of th Global-On-Board Training Centre, Professor Melville Saayman of the North-West University; Dr Marius Classen of the CSIR, and Dr Karl Klingheim of Innovation Norway.
Also present were African Union Commission’s Captain Samuel Kame Domguia and Women in Maritime of Africa (WIMA) vice-President, Ms Asmaa Benslimane.
An Overview
The conference, taking place in a week of significant political and economic turmoil marked by nation-wide protests over national governance issues amid downgrades of the country’s credit status as ‘junk’; still drew sufficient attention from national traditional media, with coverage on television, radio stations as well as newspapers and related.
In this blog therefore, rather than whip about snippets, we are providing readers both an overview of the conference during the three days, but also, crucially, some detail of some of the conference proceedings in multi-media format in the hope and belief that both regular and new consumers of maritime sector news and information contained here will appreciate. The idea of providing full presentations in virtual raw form, is to give readers as much feel, direct from the sources as is reasonably possible.
Please do note that with multimedia, videos with single delegate presentations of about half-an-hour (30 minutes) or more, are presented to you in packages of 15 minutes each (Part 1, 2 etc) and these are clearly marked on the affected material.
Day One: (Wednesday, on board the SA Agulhas) saw the delegates being treated to a cocktail function hosted by SAMSA acting CEO, Mr Tilayi, on board the SA Agulhas currently anchored at the port of Port Elizabeth since arrival a month ago from a research and training expedition to the Antarctica region.
The cocktail event theme on the evening was on ‘Enhanced Collaboration and Partnerships”
On arrival delegates were treated to a traditional dance by the Imbumba Dance Company.
Traditional dancers welcoming SAMIC 2017 delegates to a cocktail function hosted by SAMSA on board the SA Agulhas on Wednesday.
On the vessel, once settled, delegates were welcomed on board with short remarks about SAMIC 2017 shared between Mr Tilayi (SAMSA), National Skills Fund CEO, Mr Mvusiyi Macikama and Captain M. Mbatha (SA Agulhas). For their remarks, Click Here and Here
Mr Vusi September (Left) of SAMSA welcoming on board the SA Agulhas some of the SAMIC 2017 delegates.
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Day Two: (Thursday at the Boardwalk Conference Centre)
Some of the more than 20 cadets on board the SA Agulhas afforded opportunity to grace the SAMIC 2017 with their presence. They were lauded as ‘pioneers’ by several speakers, among them HIgher Education & Training Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande
Conference proceedings.
Delegates began in earnest the indaba deliberations through which during first plenary, they were taken taken through a historical overview of the country’s maritime sector developments initiatives by among others (in order of appearance), Prof Swartz (NMMU), Mr Trollip (Nelson Mandela Bay), Mr Qhoboshiyane (Eastern Cape Government), Dr Nzimande (Minister: Higher Education & Training), Mr Tilayi (SAMSA) and Mr Rudhzani Mudau (Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation).
To listen to each of the speakers, in the respective order, click on the links below
Prof Derrick Swartz. Vice-Chancellor, Nelson Mandela University
Mr Athol Trollip. Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor
Mr Mlibo Qhoboshiyane. Eastern Cape Province MEC for Agricultural Development & Agrarian Reform
Dr Blade Nzimande. Minister of Higher Education and Training
The presentations above were followed by a breakaway session comprising four groups under the theme: Unlocking Investment Opportunities in the Maritime Sector
Business Opportunities
Trends, Opportunities and Challenges in SA’s Offsho Oil and Gas Exploration Industry
Coastal & Marine Tourism and Small Harbours
Fishing and Aquaculture
This blog, the 10th Province, stayed with the last one: Fishing and Aquaculture – a multi-media package soon to follow.
SHARING INSIGHTS: Mr Sobantu Tilayi, acting CEO of South African Maritime Safety Authority addressing a gathering of about 30 people, a majority of them journalists in Durban at lunchtime on Sunday
Identification and creation of economic opportunities in South Africa’s maritime sector is among key strategies that will attract and enhance the country population’s interest and engagement with the ocean’s economy, according to Mr Sobantu Tilayi, acting CEO of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) in Durban on Sunday.
Mr Tilayi said this while addressing a group of journalists and some maritime sector specialists at a lunch event held at the Durban beachfront ahead of the Ethekwini Maritime Summit beginning in the city on Monday at the old Durban airport.
The annual summit in Durban is one of two major national maritime sector gatherings in the country in the coming week, the other being the South African Maritime Industry Conference (SAMIC 2017) over three days in Port Elizabeth. Eastern Cape; beginning on Wednesday.
Mr Tilayi (Right) having a one-on-one meeting with some journalists at a gathering at the Durban beachfront on Sunday
SAMIC 2017 scheduled for the Boardwalk Conference Centre in Nelson Mandela Bay and hosted by the recently established South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI), will be the second such conference of its kind since the inaugural one held in Cape Town some five years ago.
In Durban on Sunday, the SAMSA lunchtime event, was intended partly to provide an update on some developments concerning the maritime sector as well as share information on a whole range of developmental issues that the maritime authority is engaged with or contributes to, inclusive of the country’s Operation Phakisa (Ocean Economy) project launched in 2014.
Mr Tilayi, noting that South Africa is a maritime country endowed with just of over 3200km of a coastline on which sits eight commercial ports, and some 1.6-million square kilometers of an Exclusive Economic Zone spread over three oceans from the Atlantic in the west, the Southern Ocean in the south and the Indian Ocean to the east, yet the average South African still knew little to nothing about the sector; said part of the awareness campaign should involve identification and creation of meaningful economic opportunities in the sector.
This he said, would not only attract the public’s attention but would also ensure meaningful, profitable engagement.
Mr Tilayi’s address covered progress as well as challenges faced on a whole range of issues inclusive of ship registry, seafarer training, maritime sector education and training initiatives, maritime sector related legislation development and related matters.
In addition to his expected contribution at the Ethekwini Maritime Summit beginning on Monday, Mr Sobantu’s next important address will be in Port Elizabeth on Thursday where he is scheduled to deliver a report-back on maritime sector developments related to issues raised by industry since the last industry conference five years ago.
