South Africa gearing towards becoming one of the world’s maritime centres of excellence: SAMSA

Pretoria: 06 August 2019

South Africa, geographically located at the southern tip of the African continent bordering on three vast oceans to the east, south and west; is on course to become one of the world’s maritime centres of excellence by 2030, according to the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA).

Key drivers towards this goal, according to the agency’s acting CEO, Mr Sobantu Tilayi, include an entrenched and sustained good governance of the oceans, development and growth of the maritime economic sector, the latter which in turn requires extensive education and skills development.

Mr Tilayi said this while addressing about two thousand high school pupils during a one day Maritime Education Expo held at the King Sabata Dalindyebo Technical and Vocational Education and Training (KSD TVET) College in Coffee bay last Thursday.

The event, jointly organised by SAMSA’s Corporate Social Investment unit, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the KSD College was held to mark the launch of the celebration of the TVET Month (August) – an annual event now in its sixth year aimed at raising greater public awareness technical and vocational education and training as a viable, if important, alternative to academic university education.

Maritime education and skills development has yet to fully impact the country’s 50 TVET college network, however, and SAMSA took the opportunity to also raise awareness among high schools pupils about South Africa’s maritime status, the country’s maritime and marine sector generally and the opportunities that lie therein for both business investment, education and training, and economic development in general.

The event – the second of its kind in two weeks in the Eastern Cape – attended by also by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, Mr Buti Manamela; had also found fit with SAMSAs rural maritime programme.

The programme is focused currently on rural coastal areas which, although with total access to the 3 200 kilometers coastline of the country’s three oceans, and attaching to which is a 2.5-million squares kilometers of an exclusive economic zone at sea, lack the wherewithal to make use of it for economic and social benefit.

The SAMSA rural programme pursued in strategic partnerships with issue relevant stakeholders both in government and the private sector, involves awareness promotion, industry and basic skills development and jobs creation particularly in the marine tourism sub-sectors.

Mr Tilayi said South Africa’s Vision 2030 envisaged the country becoming one of the world’s maritime centres of excellence based both on its strategic geographical location as well as its vast knowledge and expertise on maritime issues. However, he said, good governance was a key tool towards the goal, as would be mass education and skills development.

Towards this goal, and as a means to incentive young school pupils, he offered the eight schools that released its pupils to attend the expo on Thursday, one bursary each, which would be fully funded by SAMSA

For his full remarks, click on the video below.

Meanwhile, in the main address of the event, Mr Manamela emphasised the importance the country now attaches to technical and vocational education and training as both a viable and crucial alternative route to the development of young people with skills they use almost immediately to gain meaningful employment.

Mr Buti Manamela. Deputy Minister: Higher Education & Training

According to DHET, he said, one of the success stories of the department of the training section of the department’s portfolio was the expansion of the number of TVET colleges and the restoration of their reputation as institutions of education and training excellence.

Mr Manamela said for SA young people keen on education and skills development, distinct advantages of TVET colleges included they did require Grade 12 for admission, tuition was offered for free and skills acquired could be immediately applied either through industry employment or entrepreneurship.

For his full remarks, click on the video below:

The day was split into two parts – one third to the formal speeches and two-thirds to the expo, together lasting about five hours.

End.

South Africa’s elderly remain key players in socio-economic development: SAMSA

Pretoria 23 July 2019

South Africa’s elderly population is not without longer a purpose nor a significant continued contribution to the country’s socio-political and economic contribution, and it is only correct that it remains accommodated in programmes to develop the country.

This is according to the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) which, in partnership with the King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, hosted some 250 elderly people during a function to mark the international Mandela Day at the Mthatha dam on Thursday.

The choice of the massive dam (or lake, by some accounts) for the function was consistent with SAMSA’s expanded mandate to promote the environmental and economic potential value of the country’s inland waterways within context of the development of the country’s maritime and marine economic sector as espoused through the Operation Phakisa (Oceans Economy) programme.

The partnership for the event with the KSD Municipality, and to an extent, the KSD Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) was part of a larger SAMSA Corporate Social Investment (CSI) campaign in the part of the Eastern Cape that is part the agency’s rural development programme in coastal areas of the country involving mainly youth skills development and job creation.

As it were, Thursday’s Mandela Day celebration with the area’s elderly, had been preceded by a day long SAMSA initiated and driven youth awareness programme involving more than 2000 high school children who were introduced formally for the first time to maritime sector careers.

In marking Nelson Mandela Day annually, SAMSA has over the last few years not only encouraged its own employees to donate 67 minutes of their own time to worthy causes, but also consistently focused on and donated material goods, mainly warm winter blankets to the elderly countrywide.

The activity also consistently involved the staging of a main function to entertain and dine the elderly our the country’s population.

In Mthatha on Thursday, SAMSA Head of CSI, Ms Mapitso Dlepu said the focus on the elderly was both in appreciation of their massive contribution to growth and development of families and communities, as well continued involved in support of those communities.

Many grandparents particularly in the previously marginalised and poor communities, still continued to play an active role in the rearing of children and in support of their own grown children many of whom face unemployment. Government grants are shared with whole families just to ensure that life remained bearable for many.

Ms Mapitso Dlepu. Head: Corporate Social Investment. SAMSA

However in addition, according to Ms Dlepu, it remained sensible that the elderly were not only recognised and acknowledged for their significant continued contribution, but were also kept informed of developments around them.

She said SAMSA’s statutory mandate to promote South Africa’s maritime interest both domestically and abroad essentially involved continuous engagement with communities through information sharing for greater public awareness of maritime sector issues.

Currently in the Eastern Cape, SAMSA is engaged jointly with the provincial government through the Office of the Eastern Cape Premier in an ongoing Maritime Youth Development Programme (MYDP) the both provides basic maritime skills as well secure them jobs on cruise vessels worldwide. Since launch in 2017, no less than 1000 youths from the province have since been assisted this way.

She said it made sense that parents including the elderly were also occasionally appraised of these developments in order to broaden their awareness and solicit support.

For Ms Dlepu’s remarks click on the video below.

Meanwhile, KSD Municipality Executive Mayor, Mr D.N Nelani told the audience that plans for the transformation and development of the Mthatha Dam into a marine tourism attraction were underway. He said the plans have long been established but little had been achieved to date. This he said, would need to change soon as job creation was among key objectives of both the local and provincial governments.

He said the introduction of cruise vessel services at the massive dam would be instrumental in achieving the goal. For Mr Nelani’s full remarks, click on the video below

Spoken to as they dispersed in late afternoon on Thursday, many of the elderly had high praise for the effort and expressed appreciation that Government and its agencies was consistent in acknowledging their continued existence and contribution.

This blog spoke to a few of them in the following video:

For more pictures and videos of the Mandela Day 2019 function for the elderly in Mthatha, see below

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In ’67 minutes’, SAMSA spreads warmth and care to kids and grannies in 2017 in the spirit of Nelson Mandela!

IMG-20170728-WA0017 — Some 15 of hundreds of elderly people and small children across South Africa who this year received a gift of a warm winter blanket each from the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) as part of its corporate social investment linked to celebrations of the Nelson Mandela Day worldwide.

Pretoria: 10 August 2017

The 2017 winter season in the southern hemisphere may be gently yet resolutely winding down in keeping with its own stubborn schedule, and with the process, as always, the emergence of a welcome change towards warmer weather conditions.

However, it will be the end of a wintry chill in 2017 that will be remembered fondly by no less than 700 elderly people and children across South Africa who in the year received a gift of very warm blankets from the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) as a gesture of goodwill in celebrating the Nelson Mandela International Day on July 18.

SAMSA has keenly participated in the global annual event locally to honour the South African statesman since its launch by the United Nations Assembly about a decade ago.

In 2017, once again SAMSA involved its staff in bringing relief to the communities in which it operates through its ‘CHANGE MAKERS’ initiative launched in 2015 to encourage employee voluntarism in community outreach projects.

Through the SAMSA Change Makers initiative, employees of the organization across the country are encouraged to identify communities or segments thereof that may receive assistance to meet needs in their respective regions.

dav — It was a day of joy for the little ones after receiving warm winter blankets from the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) in July in celebration of the Nelson Mandela International Day held annually since a decade ago

In 2017, rural villages with predominantly elderly people in Qumbu in the Eastern Cape were chosen for the main event and during which some 150 grannies and grandpas were gifted with the warm winter blankets.

The rest of the blankets were shared with communities identified by staff in regions in which the organization operates, from Durban on the Indian through to Saldahna Bay on the west coast.

For the main event, the choice of Qumbu, and precisely the Tsitsa Falls, was partly to align the Corporate Social Investment-driven event with the rest of SAMSA’s maritime sector public awareness campaigns and social development projects currently underway in the Eastern Cape province and whose focus currently is on the O.R Tambo District municipality encompassing Mbizana, Qumbu and Port St Johns.

They encompass marine tourism in two streams, youth skills development and tourism facilities.

SAMSA hosted this year’s International Day of the Seafarer in Mbizana, with Port St Johns also scheduled by the Department of Transport (under which SAMSA falls) as the host for this year’s celebration of the World Maritime Day in the week up to September 28.

Mbizana is the birthplace of the late ANC president, Oliver Reginald Tambo and whose national centennial celebrations are ongoing this year in honour of his immense contribution to South Africa’s liberation struggle.

On July 18, in the neighbhouring town of Qumbu, in honour of yet another liberation stalwart and global statesman, Nelson Mandela; SAMSA hosted no less 150 elderly people, male and female, to present them with warm winter blankets.

According to SAMSA, the Tsitsa Falls on the Tsitsa river was chosen as the venue for the event also partly to indicate an intention to earmark and profile the area’s nature beauty spot for mapping into the country marine tourism development initiatives under the Operation Phakisa (Ocean’s Economy) national campaign launched in 2014.

“The theme this year was “Action against Poverty” in line with the overarching theme of Take Action, Inspire Change and Make every day Mandela Day concept. Interestingly and ironic in a way, was that among the 150 guests, the oldest person was 98 years old and it was the first time she was visiting the Tsitsa Falls !” said SAMSA

The criteria for selecting recipients of the 700 blankets was fairly simple; recipients had to be from previously disadvantage backgrounds, or homeless individuals, orphanages, the elderly (given first preference) or child headed households, or widows and or widowers.

People had fun!

For more pics of the event countrywide, Click Here and stroll down.