FROM THE BRIDGE
Charting the Course
NEW FORUM AIMS FOR
INCLUSIVITY
Some debate ensued at the recent Black Maritime Business Seminar over the name and objectives of a proposed new maritime forum. While many believed the focus needed to be on establishing a black maritime business forum, others mitigated that, as a global business, the new entity needed to address the South African maritime business landscape more holistically. Maritime Review Africa’s Durban correspondent, Nkosikhona Raphael Duma attended and files this report.
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his year’s Black Maritime Business Forum, which was convened by the South African National Department of Transport (DoT) marked the launch of the South African Maritime Business Forum (SAMBF). About 200 black business people in the maritime sector attended the second annual seminar held in Durban towards the end of October where the six professionals behind the establishment introduced their brainchild. Kgomotso Selokane, Kgomotso Mogale, Vincent Zikhali, Fulu Mphuti, Lusanda Fibi and Kamalesh Naidoo responded to the call for volunteers to assist in the establishment of a united front of maritime sector players that had been made by the DoT. The volunteers developed and worked on the SAMBF concept since May 2018. The DoT, under the stewardship of Dumisani Ntuli, Acting Deputy Director-General: Maritime, had encouraged maritime sector professionals to establish a united front, following the cries echoed at last year’s seminar that the country’s maritime industry was organisationally fragmented and operated in silos. Delegates at this year’s seminar were enthusiastic about the establishment of the forum and signed up as inaugural members. Kgomotso Selokane, chairperson of the newly established forum proclaimed that the aim of the SAMBF was to be a platform and
“There is an absence of a common structure and a united voice in the maritime business community. Existing associations have a history that dates back to pre-democratisation of the South African society in 1994. Because of their history, many of the existing associations do not fully represent the South African diversity in their membership.”
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Maritime Review Africa NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2018
mouthpiece of South African maritime businesses. “There is an absence of a common structure and a united voice in the maritime business community. Existing associations have a history that dates back to pre-democratisation of the South African society in 1994. Because of their history, many of the existing associations, although defined, do not fully represent the South African diversity in their membership.” Selokane said this had resulted in the marginalisation of local maritime businesses and “loss of any role in the maritime space, both onshore and offshore.” She claimed that key sectors such as freight forwarding, shipping services, stevedoring, salvage services, bunkering services and seafaring were controlled by interests that were foreign to South Africa. Selokane proclaimed that the SAMBF supported the Comprehensive Maritime Transport Policy (CMTP) as well as National Development Plan (NDP) which “aimed to grow and ensure broadened participation of local entrepreneurs in the local shipping industry.” “We are encouraged by the fact that our country now has a policy which adequately articulates the challenges and opportunities we have in the maritime space,” she said in noting the content of the CMTP. Members of the newly established forum adopted a Charter in which they agreed that the SAMBF would work to ensure the representation of all the main sectors that form the South African maritime sector. Members of the SAMBF adopted the Charter under principles of community, collaboration, concentration and connection and resolved on the following objectives:
To facilitate and promote the entry
of South Africans into the Maritime industry;
To facilitate and provide education and/or training to South Africans within the Maritime industry;
To create awareness around the
issues facing the entry of South Africans into the Maritime industry sectors;
To promote or oppose any legislative change(s) in relation to South Africans operating within the maritime industry; and
To provide an opportunity for South Africans to solve issues facing the maritime industry.
A naming game
The naming of the forum was not without controversy or surprise, however, as some participants remarked that they had expected the formation of the “Black Maritime Business Forum”. Sam Zungu, Principal of the Umfolozi Vocational and Technical College which offers maritime training and skills development programmes, was among the strongest critics. Zungu said: “I express my displeasure with the name South African Maritime Business Forum instead of Black Maritime Business Forum because, when we got the invitation to attend the seminar, we were given an impression that we were going find ways of dealing with the inequalities that exist in the maritime sector. Even the seminar programme stated the name: Black Maritime Business Forum. “I think we lost an opportunity to establish a structure to organise ourselves as black people to demonstrate our capacity to become formidable players in the maritime sector unapologetically,” said Zungu. “The elimination of the word Black in the SAMBF defeats the purpose of this gathering. We can’t change the fact that we are black and the history that, due to our skin colour, we have been suppressed. We can’t change that, because of our skin colour and history, we are not in control of many sectors of the country’s economy. “We need to understand that we cannot keep on compromising our blackness so that we can be accommodative and generic. We need to have