Tag: Eastern Cape Premier

WOMESA South Africa chapter relaunch in Gqebera, Eastern Cape a major boost for women in maritime

Pretoria: 29 May 2023

The strengthening of women’s grip and hold onto Africa and global maritime affairs is set to receive yet another boost in South Africa with the relaunch of the country’s chapter of the Women in the Maritime Sector in Eastern and Southern Africa (WOMESA) at Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, this week.

Leading the relaunch of WOMESA South Africa chapter during the event on Tuesday will be South Africa’s Minister of Transport, Ms Sindisiwe Chikunga, accompanied by the Eastern Cape Province Premier, Mr Oscar Mabuyane, the province’s Transport MEC, Mr Xolile Nqatha, Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor, Mr Gary van Niekerk, along with several women of different occupations in the region’s maritime economic sector.

WOMESA, founded in Mombasa, Kenya in 2007; has membership in about 25 countries within the East and Southern African region including Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Thirteen of these countries have formal domestic WOMESA structures or chapters, in the Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

WOMESA projects its vision as one focused on development of the body to be ‘…a key partner for gender inclusivity in the sustainable development agenda of the maritime sector in Africa.’ Towards the goal, WOMESA’s mission is to “…promote active women participation in the maritime sector and contribute to the growth of the industry in Eastern and Southern Africa through pursuance of activities aimed at promoting gender equality.”

In its strategic aim for the five years 2022-2026, WOMESA says it is pursuing 11 objectives, among them the enhancement of training and capacity building, strengthening of mentorship programs, identification and mobilization of fundraising approaches, establishing and nurturing smart partnerships and networks, intensifying the fight against Gender Based Violence (GBV), identifying new opportunities for women in the Blue Economy, operationalizing its regional secretariat, establishing new national chapters, enhancing research and development, promoting visibility, intensifying advocacy and awareness as well as undertaking corporate and social responsibility activities.

Undergirding WOMESA’s drive is the IMO’s program on the Integration of Women in the Maritime Sector (IWMS) launched in 1989, with a ‘primary objective is to encourage IMO Member States to open the doors of their maritime institutes to enable women to train alongside men and so acquire the high-level of competence that the maritime industry demands.’

The relaunch this week of the South Africa chapter of WOMESA in Nelson Mandela Bay, occurring during the month of May on which Member States of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) celebrate a Women in Maritime Day (18 May), is a culmination of efforts by various players in the maritime sector, including the Department of Transport, the Association of African Maritime Administrators (AAMA) and others over the last five years, to resuscitate the structure following a collapse of the initiative in the country a few years earlier.

Organisers of this week’s relaunch event, over two-days, on Tuesday and Wednesday; described the resuscitation of the South Africa WOMESA chapter as crucial towards advancement of the body’s vision and mission. “The relaunching of WOMESA (in South Africa) is of paramount importance in harnessing benefits from the IMO and the broader maritime community to empower women in the industry.

“The South African Chapter of WOMESA has been inactive and did not participate in the Strategic Plan 2014-2019. This has left a vacuum in terms of accessing benefits from the IMO and other support partners such as World Maritime University (WMU), United Nations, Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA), etc.

“South African women have therefore not been able to benefit from scholarships and training opportunities offered by the IMO and other women empowerment initiatives.,” said the organisers in a statement. Broadly however, a most fundamental issue, they said, was that the role of women in the maritime sector globally was still very narrow as evidenced by their dominance of only one sub-sector: the cruise industry.

“According to the IMO, women currently represent only two percent of the world’s 1,2 million seafarers in a largely male dominated sector, and 94 percent of female seafarers are working in the cruise industry. This shows that a lot more needs to be done to increase the number of female workers across all areas of maritime professions – both shore-based and sea-going,” said the organisers.

Fraternal organisations rendering support to the initiative in both the public and private maritime sectors include South Africa’s Department of Transport (DoT), the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), Transnet National Ports Authority (TPNA), National Ports Consultative Council (NPCC), South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI), eThekwini Maritime Chamber (EMC) African Maritime Solutions (AMSOL), Oceana, Heron-Marine and the local (South Africa) chapter of the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA).

Among other highlights, the WOMESA event will also see a new local chapter leadership elected on the second day of the gathering, and a Memorandum of Understanding finalised with WISTA, on Wednesday.

Proceedings at the Southern Sun Marine Parade Hotel in Humewood, Gqeberha on Tuesday and Wednesday are scheduled to begin a 9am, with the first day punctuated by speeches and statements of support, led by Ms Chikunga, Mr Mabuyane and Mr Van Niekerk.

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97 Eastern Cape youths due for send-off on cruise ships around the world.

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Port St Johns: 22 August 2017

A joint initiative between government, private sector companies and non-governmental organizations to not only skill but create job opportunities in the maritime economic sector will pay off for 97 Eastern Cape youths this week, when they are officially sent off to join tourism cruise vessels sailing across the world.

The 97 youths out of a total 128 that recently completed specialized training in basic marine skills under the Maritime Youth Development Programe (Eastern Cape) over the last two months, are to join MSC Cruises vessels in different parts of the globe.

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The Umzimvubi River Month adjacent to which Port St Johns is situated.

A ceremony to wish them well in their new venture into the maritime world is to be held on Wednesday in Port St Johns, an Eastern Cape town on the spectacular Wild Coast region of the Indian Ocean, midway between East London and Durban.

The joint partners in the MYDP Eastern Cape initiative include the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), the Eastern Cape Provincial Government, and Harambee.

More than half the youths due for send-off on Wednesday – some for their first jobs ever – are from the O.R Tambo District Municipality, and precisely Port St Johns; an area that is targeted this current year for a series of maritime sector related projects, primarily by SAMSA, for both maritime awareness and associated youth skills development and local community social upliftment.

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Port St Johns ‘2nd Beach’ the most popular among domestic and foreign tourists and the venue of Wednesday’s youth for cruise ships send-off event.

But perhaps crucially, the SAMSA inspired and driven MYDP’s impact in the O.R Tambo District Municipality occurs against the backdrop of a Government announcement last week that Port St Johns has been declared one of six nodes in the country to be targeted for an Operation Phakisa (Ocean Economy) marine and coastal development programme over the next five years.

 

In a statement last week, Department of Tourism Minister, Ms Tokozile Xasa said following to Cabinet approval earlier this month, the Coastal and Marine Tourism Plan would be implemented in a nodal or cluster approach that would prioritize destinations rather than individual tourism projects or products.

She said the identified nodes/clusters in the first phase of up to five (5) years) would involve five geographic areas encompassing (Node 1) Durban and surrounds and (Node 2) Umkhanyakude District including Umhlabuyalingana and surrounds – all in the KwaZulu-Natal province; (Node 3) Port St Johns to Coffee Bay and (Node 4)  East London, Port Elizabeth and surrounds – in the Eastern Cape province; (Node 5) Cape Town and surrounds  in the Western Cape province and finally, (Node 6) West Coast and surrounds in the Northern Cape province.

Meanwhile, regarding Wednesday’s event in Port St Johns, according to SAMSA on Tuesday, the successful placement of the 97 youths on cruise vessels worldwide beginning September 2017, is a major achievement as it exceeds an original target of 50 youths originally planned for the first send-off.

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Mr Sizwe Nkukwana. SAMSA Programme Manager for Operation Phakisa (Ocean Economy Initiatives (Marine Transport and Manufacturing Delivery Unit)

“We are pleased that the EC project has been a resounding success. We completed the entire preparation process at the end of last week with MSC interviewing the final 128 candidates that successfully completed the training program.

“MSC Cruises has agreed to place 97 candidates in this year’s intake that starts from 1 September. This number far exceeds he initially agreed target of 50, which was our SLA with the client, Office of the Premier of the Eastern Cape. This means we exceeded our target by 80% or we had an 180% achievement,” said SAMSA Programme Manager for Operation Phakisa initiatives (Marine Transport and Manufacturing Delivery Unit), Mr Sizwe Nkukwana.

Mr Nkukwana along with some senior SAMSA management headed by Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mr Sobantu Tilayi will join Eastern Cape Premier, Hon. Phumulo Masaulle – MPL, Eastern Cape provincial government officials, local traditional leadership, officials of the O.R Tambo District Municipality at the send-off ceremony tomorrow, which will characterized by a colourful display of AmaMpondo cultural activities including dance.

‘’The time to work with young people, to alter positively their future prospects and fortunes is now. As an entry point it is good that these young people are getting this kind of exposure and opportunity, to actually work on cruise liners to gain that international outlook and experience.

“It is also important that we do not position to only take up the lower layers level jobs in the sector, but we must move to empower these young people to go on to captain these ships, to be the engineers and ports officials and so, in essence, we must strive to penetrate all sectors including scarce skills in the maritime space’’, says Premier Masualle.

The event to be held at Port St Johns 2nd Beach – notorious for some spectacular shark attacks these last few years – will be beamed live on SABC radio and television (MorningLive as well as on Umhlobo Wenene, Trufm and local radio stations).

The ceremony in three stages; a media session, a maritime exhibition and formal send-off, begins at 7am in the morning through to 2pm in the afternoon.

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