Programme director
Director General of Transport Mr George Mahlalela
CEO of South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) Commander Tsietsi Mokhele
Members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and Metro Police
Distinguished guests
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
Today we celebrate World Maritime Day 2011. In addition we will also officially kick-start our 2011 October Transport Month.
That we start the roll out of the 2011 October Transport Month here in Richards Bay by celebrating World Maritime Day in this port city North of the Thukela River underlines the importance of the maritime industry in our lives and in the lives of our neighbours and the rest of world.
This year World Maritime Day focuses on the scourge of piracy.
Befittingly, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has decided to make combating piracy not only the theme for World Maritime Day but also a central theme of its work this year and for as long it is necessary thereafter.
In this context the IMO has called on the United Nations, alliances of States, governments acting collectively or individually, military forces, shipping companies, ship operators and ships’ crews, to play their crucial role in order to rid the world of the threat posed by piracy in the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean.
As South Africa we are called upon to act in the collective interest of the world and to help defeat piracy. We at one with the world that no effort should be spared to collectively get rid of piracy because to borrow from the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr., piracy anywhere, is a threat to the maritime trade everywhere!
We thus support the IMO’s call on:
- Shipping companies to ensure that when venturing into the western Indian Ocean region, ships comply with all the recommended measures. All ships are vulnerable, in particular those with relatively low freeboards and slow steaming speeds.
- Governments’ need to back up their concern over the situation by deploying military and other resources commensurate, in numbers and technology, with the scale of the problem and with a realistic chance of dealing with it effectively.
We believe further that although piracy manifests itself at sea, the roots of the problem are to be found ashore.
Simply put, instability and insecurity on the coast of Somalia is a reflection of the political instability inside Somalia for as long as there is no government in Somalia, we will have rampant piracy.
The IMO says while some success in thwarting pirate attacks can already be claimed especially from the falling percentage of attacks worldwide, statistics indicate that piracy and armed robbery against ships remain real and ever-present dangers.
As the Secretary General of IMO Mr Efthimios Mitropolous says, “More needs to be done, including the capture; prosecution and punishment of all those involved in piracy; the tracing of ransom money and the confiscation of proceeds of crime derived from hijacked ships, if the ultimate goal of consigning piracy to the realms of history is to be achieved”.
What is South Africa doing: Safety of Fishing Vessels
So, what is our response? Firstly, in June 2011 the IMO granted South Africa the rights to host the Diplomatic Conference which will consider and adopt the much-awaited amendments to the 1993 Torremolinos Protocol.
The conference will be held in Cape Town in 2012. This is an opportunity for South Africa to lead and facilitate the finalisation of negotiations which will lead to safety for fishing vessels at sea world wide.
November IMO Council elections
In addition, we remain part of the international maritime community as members of IMO Council and actively carry our maritime responsibilities in our waters for the good of our entire coast. Our country will undoubtedly remain a big player in IMO activities into the future.
Early this year we indicated to the IMO on behalf of South Africa our wish to serve on the IMO Council again when the elections come later this year. The IMO Council elections will be held in November 2011 in London and if elected, we will seek to advance the highest standards of safety and security and the protection of the marine environment.
We must and will remain active as South Africa because among others:
- A major part of world trade depends on South Africa’s coastal waters. We are situated on a major sea route which currently facilitates the safe and secure movement of about 500 million tons of crude petrochemical sea trade. This represents over 30 per cent of the world’s petrochemical production, on board over 5 000 tanker voyages of very large crude carriers per annum.
- Ninety-eight per cent of our own trade is seaborne, and 50 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product comes from trade.
- We thus must become an active maritime nation either way: in our own interest or in the interest of the world and the two interests are part of our reality.
As an illustration, South Africa is located on a long coast line of just under 3 000 kilometres, surrounded by three oceans - the Indian, the Atlantic and the Southern ocean. South Africa has jurisdiction over about 1 million square kilometres of Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ). This EEZ comes with a search and rescue responsibility spanning over a 27million square kilometres zone, covering a vast sea-room up to the polar continent of the Antarctic.
In order to facilitate the country's maritime trade and carry out our domestic and international maritime obligations and responsibilities, South Africa has developed a sophisticated maritime transport and logistics services infrastructure, coupled with enormous sea watch and emergency response capabilities
To this end, South Africa's Centre for Sea Watch and Response, which houses our Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre and the standby salvage tug programme, responds to over 40 marine incidents a month. The standby tug assists hundreds of transiting ships in distress annually, some incidents occurring as far out as the polar Antarctic region. At the last Assembly South Africa became one of the first countries to volunteer for the IMO Voluntary Audit Scheme (VIMSAS).
South Africa has ably and consistently served on the IMO Council, demonstrating the experience and long history of focused and active participation in various committees of IMO and its technical bodies such as the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) and Space System for the Search of Vessels in Distress and the Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (COSPAS/SASART).
South Africa hosted the 17th Conference of the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities in Cape Town in March 2010, the first time it was held in Africa
Coupled with this is the fact that our country is situated along one of the major and strategic global shipping trade choke points the cape route and has developed a massive modern maritime infrastructure and vibrant marine service industry geared to the service of global shipping.
South Africa has endeavoured to live up to the IMO's mission of ensuring Safe and Secure passage for ships, clean seas and efficient shipping. We have done this by ensuring that:
- South Africa expands its maritime security capacity beyond the dictates of International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS). With the establishment of South Africa's centre for sea watch and response we have been able to implement, expand and coordinate our vessel traffic services, automatic identification system, the small vessel monitoring system and long range identification and tracking system, thereby enhancing the safety and security services.
- Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC): the regionalisation of the Cape Town MRCC, to include 13 countries in our region has gained momentum particularly in the area of capacity building.
- Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT): South Africa's offer to its regional counterparts to join in on its LRIT data centre is receiving attention by our partners.
Clearly, the maritime industry is the lubricant without which the engine of trade would simply grind to a halt. Clearly, South Africa’s maritime sophisticated infrastructure is a resource which the maritime community international cannot be without.
October Transport Month (OTM) 2011 launch
Today we unveil our 2011 October Month Programme, an annual opportunity to focus the attention of the country on issues of transport.
As demonstrated above, transport is a means to move goods and people from point A to point B in a safe, efficient, affordable and sustainable manner.
OTM this year focuses on job-creation and service delivery. In the 2011/12 financial year 68 675 jobs will be created through S’hamba Sonke. This ring-fenced conditional grant will focus on the following areas:
- Fixing potholes on our roads
- Creating access to schools and clinics and other public facilities
- The rehabilitation of key arterial routes that support the rural economy through labour intensive projects
- Prioritising the use of labour absorptive systems, including a “ know your network programme”
Public Transport
The passenger rail industry continues to face a few challenges, one of which is the reliability and availability of Infrastructure.
The Department of Transport through Passenger Rail Agency of South African (PRASA) is investing large amounts of money to address these problems. The focus of optimising asset value is on the investment in infrastructure assets based on the Rail Plan priorities and the Priority Rail Corridor strategy as approved by Cabinet in 2006.
- The priority rail corridor strategy focuses the rail industry resources on those corridors or routes where rail has a clear comparative advantage.
- A significant proportion of the existing rolling stock is due for de-commissioning between 2013 and 2015 PRASA will spend R97 billion over 18 years on the purchasing of new rolling stock. This programme will create an estimated 100 000 jobs and develop skilled and semi-skilled personnel in respective areas.
Decade of action for road safety 2011 to 2020
Furthermore, OTM 2011 will highlight road safety in South Africa seeking to find common solutions to the harrowing death deaths occurring that occur ever so frequently on our roads.
- Approximately 14 000 people are killed on our roads every year, 1 000 every month, 250 per week and 40 every day, costing at least R60 billion per annum.
- We will focus on the United Nations for its efforts to place road safety on the international platform, and its role in supporting the implementation of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.
- We launched the new National Rolling Enforcement Plan (NREP) on 1 October 2010, committing no less than to stop and check 1 million vehicles and drivers every month.
In addition, we have included climate change as in November South Africa hosts Conference of Parties (COP17) in Durban. As one of the chief contributors, transport remains one of the most critical players in efforts to mitigate climate change.
COP17 in Durban
In closing, the theme of the IMO World Maritime day for 2009 was "Climate change: a challenge for IMO too! This theme was appropriate as the world was to move to Copenhagen in a matter of days to make further commitments on climate change.
In December 2011, South Africa hosts the United Nations Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP17) Summit in Durban which it is hoped will make headway in international efforts at addressing the challenge of climate change.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is our view that the IMO should continue playing a critical role within its sphere including on matters related to the climate change. Specifically, in our sector, this is not to say there must be different rules for the same ship, but it is about ensuring that the effect and or impact of the response we give to the challenge of climate change do not become a hindrance to the development of others.
I now officially launch October Transport Month 2011.
Thank you.
