SOUTH AFRICA: Sobantu Tilayi, COO of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) admits that the sudden closure of the offshore bunkering operations in Algoa Bay could have been avoided if the relevant government departments had worked more closely with one another.

SOUTH AFRICA: The current salvage and wreck removal of a fishing vessel that grounded at St Francis Bay earlier this month is putting the South African incident response team through its paces and helping to highlight gaps that may exist within the country’s emergency maritime support structures.

MAURITIUS: The Mauritius Port Authority has launched a new digitised system aimed to eliminate the current administrative burden that requires local shipping agents to submit around 57 documents per ship call.

NAMIBIA: The country’s status as an oil and gas producer is gaining momentum with the announcement of the discovery of light oil in the Orange Basin.

KENYA: The deadline for applying to become one of the 30 handpicked projects that will be given an opportunity to pitch their maritime ideas to a panel of investors is looming on 26 January.

Having been involved in preparing one of the largest South African delegations to attend the World Maritime University (WMU) in 2013 when the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) sponsored a cohort of 27 students for the year-long course  – Tebogo Ramatjie had the opportunity to join the international maritime programme this past academic year and reflects on the experience.

SENEGAL: The FPSO, Léopold Sédar Senghor, left Singapore this week for Senegal where it will be deployed 100 kilometres south of Dakar as part of Senegal’s first offshore oil development by Woodside Energy (Senegal) BV as operator of the Sangomar Field Development Phase 1.

Support from major international maritime organisations as more shipping lines announce their decisions to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope will likely highlights the importance of crew safety despite the significant additional shipping time that this represents.