Life rafts are among a range of mandatory requirements on all ships at sea primarily to safeguard the lives of crew members from drowning in the event of an incident involving a vessel and requiring an escape by its crew onboard. (Photo: SAMSA)
Pretoria: 06 August 2024
South Africa’s national campaigns for prevention of drownings, be it at sea or in any bodies of water, remain essential to safety of life, according to the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA).
SAMSA’s message was relayed during the marking of the World Drowning Prevention Day 2024 on 25 July, a day on which the organisation joins a wide range of campaigns aimed at promoting water use safety, be it at sea or in the inland water ways.
In a brief interview on SAMSA support of initatives to prevent drowning, Chief Operaitons Officer, Mr Sobantu Tilayi, said SAMSA has mandatory regulations that require among other things, that vessels must have lifejackets on board, and life rafts that will be used in case of an emergency.
Of SAMSA’s legislated mandate, a key objective is to protect life and property at sea and this is part of SAMSA’s strategic plan, which includes ensuring shipping adherence to safety standards, practices and international conventions in waters by both foreign and national flagged vessels.
In this regard, Mr Tilayi cited the successful search and rescue and safe evacuation of 18 Filipino seafarers in July 2024 shortly after their general cargo vessel, the MV Ultra Galaxy listed heavily and eventually grounded in a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean along South Africa’s west coast.
However, in addition to enforcing regulations on the use of safety tools and equipment on vessels and related, SAMSA also directly contributes to safety campaigns that promote the prevention of drowning. These include sponsorships of swimming lessons, or partnerships with other institutions in government – such as municipalities, or non governmental, with focus on the aspect.
This, he says, closely aligns with the World Health Organisation (WHO) efforts to raise awareness on the six (6) evidence-based, low-cost drowning prevention interventions that countries and organizations can use to drastically reduce the risk of drowning. Among these, is the teaching and training of school-aged children on basic swimming, water safety and safety rescue skills and resuscitation
“SAMSA being the authority charged with ensuring the safety of life at sea, inland waters, dams, and wherever we use floating crafts, boats, big ships; we have a responsibility to prevent people from drowning.
“Now, the context; is we have the biggest population of people floating out at sea, whether they are working on ships, or boats do fishing. We operate the search and rescue centre, MRRC, in Cape Town. Once we hear or get alerted to people distressed out at sea, we must coordinate that they get to safety, so we have to search if we do not know where they are but if we do, we must coordinate their rescue.”
Miss Nompumelelo Khumalo (16) of Zinikeleni Secondary School in Carolina near Badplaas, Mpumalanga making a presentation to senior government officials including Transport Department deputy Minister, Ms Sindisiwe Chikunga during the World Maritime Day 2018 celebrations in the province a week ago.
02 October 2018
South Africa’s five inland provinces, Free State, Gauteng, North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga have as much opportunity as their four coastal provinces (KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Northern Cape) to make a telling positive impact in extracting both economic and social value in the country’s maritime and marine sectors, according to the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA).
In fact, according to SAMSA Chief Operations Officer, Mr Sobantu Tilayi, the state agency is keen on making sure this occurs through its Maritime Rural Support Programme (MRSP) launched three years ago in KwaZulu-Natal and which has already touched rural areas of the Eastern Cape and now being extended to the Mpumalanga Province.
Central to it is the engendering and inculcation of an entrenched culture of education, training and skills development in the maritime sector with lasting positive impacts on entrepreneurship development and ultimately fruitful careers and job creation.
The extension of SAMSA’ MRSP – comprising of elements of corporate social investment and separately funded joint initiatives with various parties in both the private and public sectors – to Mpumalanga Province was revealed by Mr Sobantu during this year’s celebration of the World Maritime Day at Badplaas (eManzana) on Thursday and Friday last week.
Mr Sobantu Tilayi. COO SAMSA
Describing the province bordering both Mozambique to the north east and Swaziland to the south east, as among those endowed with vast waterways comprising no less than 20 big dams, Mr Tilayi said it would be remiss that such vast natural marine endowment was not responsibly full exploited for the benefit of the broad community of the area through maritime and marine skills development, entrepreneurship involving primarily tourism, as well as job creation along the value chain.
From a SAMSA perspective – which is charged with responsibility for safety and security involving essentially the licensing of small vessels as well as skippers utilising the country’s waters ways for any reason – the opportunity is vested in ensuring that there are sufficient trained officials to monitor compliance in all areas.
Mr Tilayi said SAMSA’s planned intervention in Mpumalanga would include
focus in this area whereby it would seek to work with both provincial and local government institutions with a view to establishing a program to produce skilled officers to conduct surveys and carry out licensing inspections.
In green uniform is SAMSA’s provincial Boat Safety Officer Ms Refilwe Legodi sharing with high school pupils of Mpumalanga some of the issues involved in boat surveying for safety and security operations.
The second anticipated intervention would involve facilitating the establishment of a youth oriented entrepreneurial venture encompassing marine tourism services offering boating excursions across the province’s dams. This would start small with a pair of matric pupils from a school in the Gert Sibande District Municipality who had approached SAMSA for assistance with a skipper’s license.
A working model of a “cruise liner” designed and constructed by a group of Zinikeleni Secondary School pupils in Caroline, Mpumalanga Province and demonstrated during the World Maritime Day 2918 celebrations held at Badplaas in the province last week
The pupils from the Zinikeleni Secondary School in Carolina won many hearts with a demonstration of model of a functional ‘cruise’ vessel they designed, constructed and exhibited at the event on Thursday and Friday. For a view of the demonstration click on the video below.
A third SAMSA intervention in the Mpumalanga Province would involve the broadening of the agency’s Maritime Youth Development Programme (MYDP) involving the identification, training and deployment of youths on tourists cruise liners across the world. He said the country currently has an allowance of up to 1200 placement opportunities on cruise liners worldwide per annum, with the Eastern Cape leading in taking advantage of the programme since 2017.
The Eastern Cape’s most recent group of youths trained and deployed on MSC Cruise Liners around the world.
The final intervention may, according to Mr Tilayi, involve the identification of matric pupils in the area for training as naval architects – a skills area he described as experiencing a huge gap in South Africa as a whole.
SAMSA’s approach, said Mr Tilayi would seek direct engagement and close collaboration among all affected and interested parties but particularly the Mpumalanga provincial government, local municipalities, schools and related.
For Mr Sobantu’s full remarks on these initiatives earmarked for Mpumalanga Province in 2018/19, click on the video below.
Transport Department deputy Minister, Ms Sindisiwe Chikunga
Meanwhile, Department of Transport deputy Minister, Ms Sindisiwe Chikunga, in applauding the SAMSA initiatives, emphasized the critical importance of each of the parties playing fully their respective roles in delivering on the goals.
Also adding its weight to the maritime education and skills development programme earmarked for Mpumalanga province, Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) Chief Executive Officer, Ms Shulami Qalinge announced a R20 000 worth sponsorship to the Amanzi Primary School for swimming lessons conducted national by the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI).
