Is South Africa losing its Maritime leadership position on the African continent?

Opinion Piece

Based on its geographical position and history within the Maritime sector, South Africa possesses a great potential to provide industry leadership on the African content and can act as a key driver of the African Maritime Agenda, but recent developments including the loss of their seat on the International Maritime Organization Council should prompt the country’s leadership to take stock of its future position in this regard.

By Unathi Sonti: Chairperson, Maritime Business Chamber

With its geo-strategic position on a major global shipping route, South Africa has played a critical role in building the maritime and shipping industry by driving a conducive environment through policy and regulatory regime both at home and for the continent as a whole.

The African Maritime Transport Charter was first adopted on the 11 June 1994 – a time when South Africa was just about two months from entering into being a democratic state. In 2009, the country hosted a conference that led to the adoption of the revised African Maritime Transport Charter – and South Africa continues to advocate for the ratification as well as accession of the revised Charter by other African States.

In addition, the International Maritime Employer’s Council has viewed South Africa to be a progressive country in providing the seafarer development programme.

Over the last decade South Africa has been a guiding force on infrastructure and port development; and currently leads the Ports Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa (PMAESA). Topics such as innovation, climate change and decarbonisation remain a priority for the country as well as the association.

A leading maritime authority

South Africa continues to serve within the African Maritime Administrations (AAMA) as the permanent Secretariat of the association since 2014.

Although South Africa had previously offered to host the headquarters for AAMA, some legal challenges and obstacles within the country prevented this from materialising. In turn, the Kenyan Government offered to host the headquarters during the latest conference and gained support.

The AAMA conference, which was attended by 39 States and representatives from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), World Bank, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UN ECA), African Development Bank, International Transport Workers Federations and Africa Shipowners Owners, saw the participation of not only the national maritime administrations, but also senior government officials from their respective transport departments.

Representing the Maritime Business Chamber, I attended the conference where we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AAMA.

AAMA is the coordinating body for Maritime Administrations in Africa, established pursuant to Article 5 of the African Maritime Transport Charter (AMTC) to improve, among others, the capacity and performance of Africa’s Maritime Administrations with emphasis on human resource development, technology and information sharing. We believe that our continued partnerships in the continent will enable and unlock business opportunities whilst strengthening the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Strengthening our position for the future

South Africa’s historical strength and leadership within the maritime domain cannot be questioned. A vision for a future that maintains as well as cements the country’s dominant position needs a clear strategy. As such, I believe that we should be concentrating on the following key points to ensure our maritime leadership position.

Galvanise and unite Africa behind a united voice when it comes to discussions on the International Maritime Organisation’s GHG strategy.
Harness regional and subregional collaboration on contemporary issues such as seafarer development and the positioning of Africa as a new manning frontier for innovations such as Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS).
Ensure active participation at IMO committee meetings to advance the interests of the continent and take up leadership positions.
Lead discussion and initiatives on the continent on the opportunities presented by the decarbonisation of shipping.
Avail the State when it comes to opportunities to host IMO capacity building initiatives.
Lead initiatives that promote the AIMS 2050 and realise the Agenda 2063 goals.
Accelerate economic growth within our Oceans Economy by implementing strategies and initiatives that are already in place.
Accelerate and expand the African Continental Free Trade Areas.

Within the continent, Kenya, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire have the regional IMO offices in Africa for technical cooperation and capacity development. This calls for South Africa to take the initiative and tap into such programmes in pursuit of growing this global industry.