Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) launched its penultimate tug as part of its R1.4-billion nine-tug construction contract today (Friday) at Southern African Shipyards in Durban.
UMKHOMAZI, meaning “place of cow whales” in isiZulu, will serve at the Port of Durban - and the name follows the port’s tradition of naming its marine fleet after local rivers. She is named after the river on KwaZulu Natal’s South Coast, also known as the Mkhomazi or Umkomaas – a moniker given by the Zulus in reference to large numbers of whales once using the estuary as a nursery.
Friday’s event also saw the handover to TNPA of the seventh tug, USIBA, which was named and launched in August.
TNPA general manager: commercial & marketing and lady sponsor of UMKHOMAZI, Lauriette Sesoko, revealed that USIBA would be delivered to the Port of Cape Town.
“One of the benefits of being a multi-port authority running a complementary port system is that we are able to pool our resources between our ports and to adjust plans where necessary. Originally, tugs in this order were planned for the Ports of Durban, Richards Bay, Saldanha and Port Elizabeth, where the needs at the time were assessed as being the greatest.
“However, we have since taken the decision to redeploy the seventh tug, USIBA, from Richards Bay to Cape Town instead,” she said.
Sesoko said the Port of Cape Town had recently experienced an upsurge in larger vessels requiring tugs with a more powerful bollard pull.
