The 18 crew members of three ships abandoned in Durban port have arrested the vessels in a bid to claim hundreds of thousands of rands in unpaid wages and living expenses after the ship’s owners left them high and dry.
SA Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) occupational health and safety manager, Sibusiso Rantsoabe, said the 18 crew who were stranded on the vessels had been granted warrants of arrest for the vessels in the Durban High Court. Two of the ships have been abandoned in the port for more than five years, although their crew have only been onboard for just over 12 months, while the third vessel arrived in January 2022.
“We currently have three vessels that can be described as abandoned in terms of the IMO (International Maritime Organization) regulations. The owners have failed to pay salaries on time, failed to repatriate seafarers where requested, and failed to provide adequate food, medical care, and accommodation. In addition, the master/captain has not been given money to run ship operations,” Rantsoabe said.
There are two Indian seafarers on the MV PSD 2, who joined the vessel in Durban in October 2021, nine Indian and one Iranian seafarer who arrived on the MV PSD104 in Durban in early January 2022 after being aboard for more than 11 months, and six Bangladeshi seafarers, who joined the MT Fairy Tale to replace their compatriots in Durban in February 2021. The MV PSD 2 and MT Fairy Tale were abandoned at Durban port more than five years ago.
He said that in terms of the IMO regulations, abandonment occurred when “the shipowner fails to fulfil certain fundamental obligations to the seafarer relating to timely repatriation and payment of outstanding remuneration and to the provision of basic necessities of life, adequate food, accommodation, and medical care. Abandonment will have occurred when the master of the ship has been left without any financial means in respect of ship operation”.
Two vessels have the same owner whom Samsa has been unable to contact to raise the issue, while an Angolan Bank, BCI, has attached the third, the MT Fairy Tale.
He said the crew had arrested the ships in an effort to claim their unpaid wages and living expenses from the absentee owners.
Rantsoabe said Good Samaritans Meals on Wheels South Africa and the Diwali Festival Organising Committee (NedFest) had come onboard to provide food and gas cooking equipment to the starving crew as the ships had run out of fuel to run their generators. He said BCI bank had also assisted by providing salaries and food for several months.
